United in Purpose: Winchester’s MLK Day

On Monday, Jan. 19, I had the priv­i­lege of attend­ing Winchester’s annu­al Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day cel­e­bra­tion, host­ed by the MLK & Unity Day Committee. Every year, this event brings our com­mu­ni­ty togeth­er in a way that reminds me of the pow­er we hold when we walk in uni­ty. It’s a day I look for­ward to, not just because of the pro­gram, the music, or the speech­es, but because of the feel­ing. A feel­ing that, for a moment, we are one peo­ple mov­ing in the same direction.

As always, the day began at the Clark County Courthouse, where some gath­ered in the morn­ing chill for the tra­di­tion­al march to St. Agatha’s Catholic Church. That march has become more than a sym­bol­ic ges­ture, it is a liv­ing, breath­ing tes­ta­ment to Dr. King’s lega­cy. When every­one arrived at the church, the vibrant sound of the George Rogers Clark High School Jazz Band was wel­com­ing. Their music filled the room with ener­gy and warmth, set­ting the stage for what was to come.

Inside, the GRC Cardinal Singers lift­ed their voic­es in a mov­ing ren­di­tion of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” along with oth­er beau­ti­ful selec­tions. It was a moment of rev­er­ence and reflec­tion. Breakfast fol­lowed, gra­cious­ly served by stu­dents from the GRC Junior ROTC and the National Honor Society — young peo­ple step­ping up to serve and be part of some­thing greater than themselves.

This year, the church was full. Among the atten­dees were city and coun­ty lead­ers, pas­tors, edu­ca­tors, stu­dents, and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers from all walks of life. That was pow­er­ful. Because in that room, for that morn­ing, it didn’t mat­ter what race, reli­gion, or polit­i­cal belief you held. What mat­tered was that we were togeth­er, unit­ed in hon­or­ing a man whose vision still chal­lenges us to be better.

Vaché King served as the emcee for the cel­e­bra­tion, and as she opened the occa­sion, her words set the tone for the morn­ing: “To live togeth­er requires humil­i­ty, to learn to live togeth­er requires effort, and to do so as broth­ers and sis­ters requires us to see one anoth­er not as adver­saries, but as neigh­bors, equal­ly deserv­ing of dig­ni­ty and grace.” That spir­it of uni­ty car­ried through as Superintendent of Clark County Public Schools Dustin Howard took the stage as this year’s keynote speaker.

He spoke about the pow­er of con­nec­tion and the impor­tance of inten­tion­al­ly build­ing rela­tion­ships. One phrase that stayed with me was when he said, “Every inter­ac­tion you have leaves a wake.” He remind­ed us that we have a choice in how that wake, our impact, rip­ples through the lives of oth­ers. We can choose to leave joy. We can “choose hap­py every day.”

His mes­sage was a call to rise above our own cir­cum­stances and rec­og­nize the big­ger pic­ture: that sup­port­ing our kids, our neigh­bors, and our com­mu­ni­ty is a respon­si­bil­i­ty we all share. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. exem­pli­fied this in every aspect of his life. No mat­ter how soci­ety treat­ed him, he held onto the vision, the DREAM, of what could be. He saw poten­tial where oth­ers saw only bar­ri­ers. That unwa­ver­ing belief in a bet­ter tomor­row, if we can look beyond what is bro­ken to what is pos­si­ble, is some­thing we still need, per­haps now more than ever.

Superintendent Howard also shared what it was like when he first came to Clark County. He recalled how some peo­ple spoke neg­a­tive­ly about our kids and our com­mu­ni­ty. But today, he hears more good than bad. Looking out into the room, he said, “We are Clark County, Winchester.” His words car­ried weight, because they weren’t just hope­ful, they were true. Good things are hap­pen­ing here. And when we come togeth­er in uni­ty, there is so much more we can do.

As I lis­tened to Mr. Howard, I couldn’t help but reflect on the kind of wake we each leave behind, not just through actions, but through words, tone, and inten­tion. Is our com­mu­ni­ty per­fect? Of course not. But when we see gaps or needs, maybe that’s our invi­ta­tion to help. Maybe we keep see­ing those things because we are meant to be part of the solution.

This year, the MLK Unity Day Committee invit­ed schools to hon­or King through stu­dent art projects. What result­ed was noth­ing short of inspir­ing, col­or­ful, heart­felt works that cap­tured his mes­sage. Special thanks to Kent Coogle, direc­tor of the English Learners Program and Community Education for Clark County Public Schools, for orga­niz­ing this effort in col­lab­o­ra­tion with school art depart­ments. One school’s project fea­tured King’s quote: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that mat­ter.” That quote aligned so per­fect­ly with the theme of the day and with Mr. Howard’s reminder that we all have influ­ence, that we all leave a wake.

Longtime com­mit­tee mem­ber Sandy Stults shared why she remains com­mit­ted to this event year after year. A ded­i­cat­ed retired teacher of more than 20 years, she made it a point to teach Black his­to­ry year-round and not just in February. As she told me, “It speaks to where we need to be as a nation. We need to be togeth­er. We need uni­ty, and it is so impor­tant to remem­ber Dr. Martin Luther King.”

This year’s MLK Unity Day Committee was chaired by Martha Miller, who shared that the celebration’s theme was inspired by the schools’ “Portrait of a Learner” ini­tia­tive. She explained that “Dr. King under­stood the impor­tance of devel­op­ing ‘engaged cit­i­zens’ and nur­tur­ing lead­er­ship through inten­tion­al con­nec­tion with one another.”

Mr. Howard closed his mes­sage with a chal­lenge, that the uni­ty we felt in that room not end with the day. He point­ed out that many peo­ple live for the week­end, wait­ing for Friday to come, but he remind­ed us there are sev­en days in a week. How many oppor­tu­ni­ties do we miss when we only live for just one day? In the same way, we must not lim­it our sense of uni­ty and ser­vice to a sin­gle Monday in January. 

Dr. King stat­ed: “Faith is tak­ing the first step even when you can’t see the whole stair­case.” That’s what uni­ty looks like, walk­ing togeth­er, even when we don’t have all the answers. Supporting one anoth­er, regard­less of race, polit­i­cal par­ty, or back­ground. I left the event feel­ing grate­ful, not just for the pro­gram, but for the peo­ple. I saw famil­iar faces, met new friends, and final­ly spoke to peo­ple I had only heard of by name. My hope is that this cel­e­bra­tion left more than mem­o­ries. I hope it left a wake, a wake of joy, oppor­tu­ni­ty, and con­nec­tion that car­ries on in all of us.