While most students had Monday off for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, dozens of kids and adults in a Monmouth County school followed the message of the late leader to spread giving and kindness.

The effort at Wall Township Intermediate School was for the town's fourth annual Day of Giving event.

More than 100 volunteers helped to sort donated items for local charities in and around the Jersey Shore town.

 

"They are organizing, sorting, they're collecting food for the Manasquan food pantry, they're collecting pet supplies for the Associated Humane Society, they're collecting prom dresses for lunch break and they have a big prom dress giveaway," said founder and volunteer Gwen Moran.

Just an hour in and the donations were already on pace to exceed previous year's giving events.

"I've seen how happy it makes everybody, and to see the desserts they get, to see the cards they get, the hidden rocks around the schools and it just makes others so happy and I just love that," said student and volunteer Abby Tigar.

One of Dr. King's message was be kind to others. The students were painting what's known as “kindness rocks.” If a resident finds one in the community, they are encouraged to use the hashtag “Wall Rocks,” and then go out and perform a random act of kindness.

"It's amazing how our community comes together and when I taught these kids they were seven or eight-years-old, and now they are high school kids and moving on to college or intermediate, and it's just so great to see them care so much about the town and helping out and doing whatever they can," said teacher Hilary Addonizio.

Kids and parents also helped bake enough sweet treats to feed the Wall Township police and first responders as their way of giving back and saying "thank you" on a day meant to think of others.