Community service efforts honor the spirit of Lt. Richard Collins III

Volunteers participated in Lt. Collin’s Day of Service by working alongside Strength to Love 2, an urban farm in Baltimore.

A previous version of this story mispelled Matasha Harris as “Natasha Harris.” This story has been updated to correct the mistake.

For their son's birthday, Dawn and Rick Collins wanted the College Park community to spend a day the way Lieutenant Richard Collins III spent his life: serving others.

Lt. Richard Collins III would have been 30 years old on Dec. 12, 2023. But six years ago, a University of Maryland student killed him on campus in an act of hate.

 “This is not going to be the end of the story,” said Dawn Collins.

Dec. 9 marked the second Lt. Collin’s Day of Service. His parents organized the event in collaboration with the BSU-UMD Social Justice Alliance, the Mission Continues - a national veterans nonprofit, and the Lt. Richard Collins Foundation.

Over 100 volunteers from across Maryland, including students from the University of Maryland, Bowie State, and Morgan State, lent a helping hand at Strength to Love 2. It is an urban farm that aims to tackle Baltimore City food insecurity. 

Amid weed whackers buzzing away, volunteers loaded dead shrubs into wheelbarrows and replaced it with fresh mulch. Another team encouraged one another while erecting a fence. The remaining volunteers installed plastic covers over the greenhouses to keep crops warm during winter.

“Our son would just love this. He’d be right out in the mix. This is his kind of thing. He was an outgoing go-getter,” said Rick Collins. 

Lt. Richard Collin’s fellow military servicemen and women volunteered alongside students and community members. Susan Thaxton, chief strategy officer for the Mission Continues said the organization’s goal is to get veterans outdoors and serving the community long after they have left the service. 

The lieutenant came from a family with a long military history. His grandfather served in the Korean War and his father served in the Vietnam War. But his mother said everyone who served the community that day was an American patriot. 

“When my son took that oath of office, he took it for all of America, for the United States of America. He didn’t take it for Black America or white America… they’re putting people in silos, and that’s not what he was all about,” said Dawn Collins. 

Some forms of isolation the event aimed to break were those between students at the University of Maryland and Bowie State. According to Dawn, the universities are less than 14 miles apart, but the students know little about one another. 

Matasha Harris, faculty leader of Bowie’s Social Justice Alliance, said that students working side-by-side provides the opportunity to work in diverse groups while also engaging in social justice activities. 

“It allows us to remember him while doing something good,” said Anaiah Davis-Jackson, a senior public health science major at this university. 

As a recipient of a Lt. Collins Foundation scholarship, Renee Whittington, a sophomore government major at Bowie State and member of the Bulldog Battalion ROTC program, said the foundation affects her everyday life.

Several students said their participation wouldn’t be possible without the free transportation offered by their respective institutions.

By the end of the day, volunteers accomplished in a few hours what would have taken the small crew at Strength to Love 2 months to complete. 

According to John Worth, the first Lt. Collins Day of service earlier this year helped farmers deliver hundreds of pounds of food to the local food pantry, and the second day would be no different. 

Jeanette Snider, assistant research professor for UMD’s Social Justice Alliance explained these events must continue now that most of the student body was not around to experience the incident. Otherwise, she said, Lt. Collins’ memory will be diminished to only a plaza or an email sent by President Darryll J. Pines.

“It’s got to be more than a memorial. It’s got to be more than these empty promises. And this is a testament that it’s not, it’s not empty,” said Snider.

The University of Maryland will host a Social Justice Alliance symposium this spring featuring panelists and artists. According to Snider, the university will also offer a co-taught and co-enrolled class with Bowie State, focused on hate crimes in the U.S., rooted in the Lieutenant’s story.