Service rally highlights local youth, MLK legacy
The 19th Annual MLK Jr. “Youth” Infusion and Community Service Rally was held on the steps of Friendship Baptist Church on MLK Jr. Blvd in Cedartown on Saturday, Jan. 15, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 93rd birthday.
Sponsored by Youth Working Together for a “Speedy” Awareness, Coy Frasier served as the mistress of ceremonies. She sang happy birthday to King and released balloons in his honor.
Cedartown City Commissioner Jessica Payton read the 2022 MLK Jr. Day Proclamation written by YWTSA, while guest speaker Rev. Willie Mae Simpson spoke about the theme for this year’s program, “Rise Up: Dream and Keep Moving.”
The 2021 Polk County Citizen of the Year, Simpson is the founder of Crossroads: Bridging the GAP, a non-profit organization which provides free mentoring, tutoring and a summer camp for youth.
In the 1960’s, she left high school with other students to march with King in Birmingham, Alabama. Since that day she said, “I have been motivated and found inspiration to live a life of service to my fellow man. Let us take up the mantle and bring it forth so that we can speak life and truth to our children, so that they can be the absolute best that they can be.”
Simpson’s motto is, “When we know better, we can do better.”
The event’s annual canned food drive collected over 200 items that will be donated to needy families and a charitable organization in Cedartown.
After the program, the YWTSA Free Book Fair began and youth were able to select from non-fiction and fiction books, puzzles, math and reading flash cards, composition notebooks, and markers. The books were donated by Our House Thrift Store on Main Street in Cedartown.