Community to honor Dr. King with 25th annual celebration

Zora Thomas
Business Manager

Community members walk through Webster Groves during the Martin Luther King March on Jan. 14, 2018. Photo by Ashli Wagner

Webster Groves and Rock Hill community members gather at Henry Givens Elementary School on Sunday, Jan. 19, to honor Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and his impact on the community.

Some celebrators will participate in the annual mile-long march from Webster Groves City Hall to the Steger-Givens Elementary School. Marchers will meet at the elementary school at 4 p.m. for a bus ride to the City Hall. At 4:30 p.m. the marchers will march from Elm Avenue to Euclid Avenue, Euclid Avenue to Rock Hill Road, then Rock Hill Road to Steger-Givens Elementary.

After the mile-long march, community members will meet in the school cafeteria at 5 p.m. for a light dinner, with food including finger sandwiches and soup, provided from local vendors and volunteers, served at no charge.

At 5:45 p.m. the program will start in the auditorium, it will feature music/singing, readings and arts performed by students from various schools in the district and Webster University.

Ras Jones Awards will also be given out during this celebration.

Participants will be encouraged to join together to sing the anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing” which will be led by Major Edward Mahan. The high school senior and junior step team will also perform halfway through the program.

Lamar Fitzgerald, music coordinator, said, “…usually I put together a community choir of all the churches in Webster…the last few years it’s been difficult to bring people together, so this year we took a different approach. We basically have various schools contributing to entertainment portion. We have the steppers from the high school. We’ve got an elementary school that’s providing the choir. We have also a group opening the program, from the high school…and Webster University is offering some entertainment.”

The Voices with Vision All-Star Choir, directed by Des Reichold, will perform the closing music.