MLK Day brings community together

LYNN – From the Boys and Girls Club’s basement and the gymnasium at Girls Inc. to the kitchen at My Brother’s Table and the halls of the Grand Army of the Republic, the impact of Martin Luther King Jr. Day was felt all over the city Monday.Schools were closed and many businesses shuttered in honor of the slain civil rights leader, who would have turned 85 last week, but scores of volunteers went to work anyway on what has become for many a day of service.”We have about 175 volunteers,” said Cassandra Foley, a program coordinator for Girls Inc. “I printed 160 name tags and I ran out of blank ones.”Foley and Mary Trahan from the Lynn Coalition coordinated A Day of Service, which brought together volunteers from LCA and Girls Inc. as well as Lynn Mass in Motion, Lynn Youth Street Outreach Advocacy Inc., The Food Project, Raw Art Works, Communities that Care and Social Capital Inc.The event started early with Trahan teaching a workshop on resolving issues through non-violence while Foley, along with LYSOA Director Teresa DiGregorio, dispatched teams of volunteers to serve lunch at My Brother’s Table; collect toiletries and non-perishable food items for the Lynn Shelter at Shaw’s, Stop & Shop and Compare; hand out books at Operation Bootstrap; make valentines; and conduct a cleanup at Girls Inc. There were also groups painting at the Lynn Shelter and the GAR Museum on Andrew Street.”I didn’t even know that (museum) was there,” said Carlos Nazavio, regarding the GAR. “Twenty-three years I’ve lived here and I never knew.”Phoeuth Phon said it is the second year that she and Nazavio, both from the Restart Program at LYSOA, led a group of volunteers for the day of service.”It was a lot of work but the guys liked the museum a lot,” she said. “We got a tour before we painted.”Teen Program Director and Torch Adviser Greg Wingfall said he plans to put together a day of service for his teens next year, but this year the group hosted its first-ever Martin Luther King Jr. Day Breakfast.Carlos Perez, 16, was among the teens who thought the breakfast was a good idea.”I think it brings people together,” he said. “Martin Luther King changed a lot of people, not just colored people, to live better lives.”Makayla Groce, 18, agreed that even 46 years later, it’s important to celebrate King, who was assassinated on April 4, 1968.”It shows that everybody is willing to come together and enjoy and conversate with each other with no problems,” she said.”Otherwise we wouldn’t be here together,” said Shaday Ricker, 13, indicating the diverse crowd of about 50 who gathered for the event.When speaker Keisha Conigliaro, of La Chic Mentoring Plus, asked the crowd why King was murdered, 10-year-old Chris Kadiri and Geneliz Herrera summed it up best.”Because one person didn’t like what he was saying and thought only people with a different skin color, white, should have what we have today,” Kadiri said.”Because not everyone likes change and he was change,” Herrera added.Conigliaro then asked if things would be as they are today had King not become a civil rights advocate, and, again, the voice of Kadiri spoke clearest.”No, because if he didn’t say anything or care then no one would have thought black people should have the right to do anything,” he said.Maru Colbert, an engineer and founder of Edutech, a company that promotes math, science and engineering among girls, urged everyone at the breakfast to be like King and be heard.”Lift your voices or be part of the problem,” she said.