Students, faculty, staff and community members gathered for a day of events ranging from a march, poetry readings and other activities in remembrance of Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday, Jan. 15.
The day of remembrance, which was put together by the Multicultural Education Resource Center (MERC) and Center for Student Enrichment (CSE), started at noon with an equity march which began at the Magers/Meyland lobby and moved across campus.
The participants then broke for lunch in the Peter White Lounge in the University center, where President Erickson read excerpts from MLK’s letters from Birmingham jail, a diversity update by Jessica Cruz, a talk about why people march by Brozzo, poetry and readings. Readers included Mohey, Tanja Stanaway, Beverly Matherne, Lynn Domina, Jamie Glenn, Lesley Larkin and Anna Zimmer. The poems were brought back after the response from the poetry readings at the UNITED Conference, said Brozzo.
“I thought now would be a good time to bring some of that back, and really showcase a lot of the diverse languages that are in use and very active around this area, so I think people will really
get involved with them and listen to them.”
Music was also provided at the lunch by Marty Reinhardt, Jud Sojourn and others.
The event concluded with service projects and skill builders that students could sign up to participate in and were provided by CSE, said Brozzo.
“One of the things we’re really looking forward to is the training session for the new Wildcat Food Pantry, so students will have another place to volunteer and help out their fellow students who are maybe with not enough resources to eat.”
Other sessions included making Valentines day cards for veterans,
knitting for the Harbor House, tshirt dog toys for UPAWS, helping out at the Children’s Museum and a volunteer orientation for Room at the Inn. More than 120 people participated in the event, said Associate Director of the MERC Shirley Brozzo.
Junior Applied Behavior Analysis major Hayley Donahue was just one of the students who participated in the march and said it was great to see so many people participate.
“It’s really cool to see a huge group of people coming together, forward thinking, and making an effort to spread awareness in what they want to see done in the world,” Donahue said.
