The life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. permeated through the schools of Freeport Public Schools as students recognized Dr. King in honor of his birthday on Jan. 15.
At New Visions School, the students gathered to honor and celebrate the life and work of the activist with a schoolwide celebration. Students read poems about Dr. King, sang songs inspired by his mission for equality and read highlights from his life.
The celebration closed with the presentation of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Award for Peace and Leadership. Each year, the award is presented to one fourth grade student who is honored for demonstrating the exemplary qualities of Dr. King.
Principal Jessica Romero presented the top honor to Zoet Javier Valez. Zoet’s name and photo will be displayed on a special plaque in the New Vision’s lobby. Other students who received Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. medallions and certificates of outstanding citizenship were Adom Baronette, Dennis Choc, Darwin Cruz and Marvin Cortorreal Vincente.
During the week leading up to Dr. King’s birthday, the J. W. Dodd Middle School’s Ladies of Dodd organization held a toiletry drive collecting shampoo, conditioner, toothbrushes, toothpaste and more to benefit the Mt. Sinai Baptist Church of Roosevelt’s outreach program. Students throughout the school were invited to help The Ladies of Dodd package the items into care packages so the collected items can be easily handed out to those in need. The Ladies of Dodd made more than 500 care packages to provide to the outreach program.
At the elementary schools, classroom teachers were hard at work teaching students the importance of Dr. King and the qualities he possessed. At Columbus Avenue Early Childhood Education Center, Ms. Catherine Byrne’s kindergarten class created posters of Dr. King and included their dreams for a brighter future. Ms. Heather Tollin’s classroom conducted an experiment where students were challenged to make observations about the appearance of different eggs, both inside and out, and learned an important lesson about equality.
Ms. Francie Jonza’s kindergarten class at the Leo F. Giblyn Elementary School created friendship flowers by tracing their hands on different color paper and pasting them to pipe cleaners. The flowers were the culminating project for the students after learning about diversity, equality, peace and what it means to be a good friend.
At Archer Street Elementary School, students and staff celebrated Dr. King by wearing yellow for Peace Day. In addition, the kindergarten classes created a bulletin board which expressed their dreams for the future and shared happy birthday wishes for Dr. King.