Local activities planned for Martin Luther King Jr. Day

A series of activities are planned for Friday and Monday in Havre to mark the birthday and commemorate the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

The events will be hosted by Montana State University-Northern’s Office of Diversity Awareness and Multicultural Programs, MSU-N Student Activities, the Montana State University Compact and AmeriCorps VISTA.

Christina Estrada Underwood, director of the multicultural programs, said that even decades after his death the ideals of racial harmony and nonviolence King espoused remain just as important today as they were nearly five decades ago.

“We need to remember that,” Estrada-Underwood said. “Not just on Martin Luther King Day but every day.”

Estrada-Underwood and others at Northern and throughout the community to pay tribute to King with a White Balloon Walk For Peace on Friday at 10 a.m.

Participants will meet on the Northern campus in the parking lot between Cowan Hall and the Hagener Science Center where they will be greeted with white balloons, meant to signify peace. They will then walk in unison, with balloons in hand, to the area outside the Student Union Building.

Underwood said the trek from the parking lot to the building is intended to be short, because of the snow on the ground and cold temperatures.

Once they reach their destination, the crowd will listen to short speeches reflecting on the life and philosophy of King. Those in attendance will release the balloons into the air after the speeches are over.

Estrada-Underwood said the White Balloons Walk for Peace was the idea of Northern Chancellor Greg Kiegel.

Each year there is an on-campus activity to honor King, Estrada-Underwood said.

Last January there were two activities. The first, which took place on the Friday before Martin Luther King Day, was an art show, where artists would each select a line from King’s historic “I Have a Dream” speech to serve as inspiration in the creation of a piece of art.

The following Monday, there was a trivia game, with facts about King’s legacy and life serving as the basis for the questions, Underwood said.

AmericaCorps VISTA will do its part to promote the message and educate the public about King with their Read For Peace program, in which volunteers and college students read to children about the life and work of King.

Jennifer Thimmel. a VISTA volunteer, said members of both the men and women’s basketball teams at Northern will take part, along with other volunteers.

Thimmel estimates eight members from the Northern Lights team will visit and read to students at Highland Park Early Primary School from 1:30 to 2 p.m., and eight from the Northern Skylights will do the same at Lincoln-McKinley Primary School from 1 to 1:30 p.m.

There will be additional readings at the District 4 HRDC Building that same day from 9:30 to 11 a.m. and noon to 1:30 p.m. Thimmel said that while the individual readings will not take an hour and a half, they will each be scheduled for sometime within those time frames.

Havre-Hill County Library will be hosting a similar reading from 1 to 3 p.m. where those in attendance will be able to contribute to a group art project illustrating King’s dream.

Thimmel said organizers hope to display the end product around town.

Monday, the actual day set aside to honor King, MSUN student activities will be a day-long Help Your Neighbor program, where volunteers on the Northern campus can help with and receive assistance from others on small household chores and maintenance projects.

For more information on “Help Your Neighbor,” people can contact Denise Brewer on the Northern campus at the Office of Student Activities, Intramurals and Recreation at 265-3700, ext. 3732.