Ansonia High hosts MLK Day fundraiser for students civil rights tour

DERBY — On Martin Luther King Day, a group of Ansonia High School students hope to raise enough money to travel to where it all began.

Reese Morales, the director of equity and communications for the school district, is planning a civil rights tour of various locations in the south. The hope is to defray the cost of the trip, nearly $2,500 per student, with a fundraising luncheon Monday at noon at the school.

“We really need people to purchase tickets and/or donate money for Monday’s event to be a success and to be able to fundraise enough money to send students on this life-changing trip to Atlanta and Alabama,” Morales said.

The luncheon is officially titled the Valley Dr. Martin Luther King Day Celebration and Naomi Wallace Love Feast, named after the Ansonia community advocate who died in 2022. The lunch will feature performances, speeches and a large spread including chopped barbecue, mac and cheese and sweet potatoes among other dishes.

Ansonia High students will prepare the food. Suggested donation is $20 per person, and tickets are available by calling TEAM Inc. 203-751-8680.

Maliqa Mosley-Williams, chair of the Valley MLK Committee, said ticket sales so far have been encouraging.

“It seems that we have a lot of enthusiasm from the community,” she said.

In addition to the civil rights tour, the lunch will also raise money for a planned Valley-based MLK

Fund. The committee is also planning a mural depicting King to be located in Derby.

The MLK Fund will help TEAM Inc., a Valley-based nonprofit agency, with beautification initiatives and training the next generation of community advocates and leaders within the Valley, Morgan said.