Community Coalition for Social Justice & Main Street Morgantown 12th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr., Day Celebration: “Growing Up Martin”
The Community Coalition for Social Justice and Main Street Morgantown are sponsoring this annual event on January 15th at 2:00 p.m. at the Metropolitan Theatre, 369 High Street, Morgantown. Because we anticipate that many events recognizing the 50th anniversary of Dr. King's assassination in 1968 will focus on his career and adult life, we will focus on the experiences of his boyhood that made him the man he became. There will be music in the lobby before the event. Mayor Bill Kawecki will welcome the audience. The Flying Colors, Morgantown Community Orchestra, Mylan Park Elementary School Choir, and Morgantown Children's Choir will perform, and the winners of the NAACP-Greater St. Paul AME Church Multimedia Essay Contest will share their essays. Janis-Rozena Peri will sing one of Dr. King's favorite songs, "If I Can Help Someone," and Jeremy Thomas will be reading a story about Dr. King as a boy. Look for posters by art students from St. Francis Central Catholic School in downtown businesses to promote the event. CCSJ will also have social justice-themed bumper stickers and buttons for sale. The League of Women Voters and Morgantown Human Rights Commission will have information tables in the lobby, and the League will have information available about the new West Virginia voter i.d. law that will then be in effect. Admission is free, but CCSJ asks that those attending bring donations for the Scott's Run Settlement House Backpack Feeding Program that provides food for area school children over the weekend, which now serves 839 children at nine schools in Monongalia County, Sample foods needed are individual servings of graham crackers, animal crackers, cereal boxes, fruit snacks, Jell-O, ravioli soup, and applesauce. A link to a complete list and more information is available at srsh-org.doodlekit.com/home/backpack_snack_program. CCSJ provides this event with financial support from the City of Morgantown and Rachel Wood of Virtus Wealth Solutions.
11th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr., Day Celebration: “Nonviolence is Courageous”
The Community Coalition for Social Justice will explore the theme of “Non-violence is Courageous” during its Eleventh Annual Martin Luther King, Jr., Day Celebration on Monday, January 16, 2016, at 2:00 p.m. at the Metropolitan Theatre, 373 High Street, Morgantown. The program will feature music in the lobby before the event, a welcome by Morgantown Mayor Marti Shamberger; music by the Flying Colors, Morgantown Children’s Choir, the Morgantown Community Orchestra, and the Cheat Lake Elementary School Choir; and a performance by children from the Shack Neighborhood House. Jeremy Thomas will recite sections of Dr. King’s speech “Where Do We Go From Here?,” and Lt. Matt Solomon of the Morgantown Police Department will talk about how “Police Officers are Peace Officers.” Art students from St. Francis Central Catholic School provide posters to publicize the event. The Morgantown Police Department is providing coloring and activity books on “How to Handle Bullying” for the children attending, and Rachel Wood of Virtus Wealth Solutions purchased crayons for them. High school HSTA students will assist at the event. This program is free and open to the public. For more information on the Community Coalition for Social Justice, the Backpack Snack Program, and this program, please go to www.ccsjwv.org or email ccsjwv@hotmail.com.
First Lady’s Festival of Songs
The West Virginia Division of Culture and History and First Lady Joanne Jaeger Tomblin welcome middle school and high school choirs from across the Mountain State to perform holiday music as part of the First Lady’s Festival of Songs. The show is free and open to the public. The performance, sponsored by the Division of Culture and History and the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission, will be taped as part of a special partnership with the West Virginia Library Commission and then aired Christmas morning on Library Channel television stations throughout the state.