Hundreds Volunteer for Annual North Berkshire King Day
 Allan and Cindi McLain, recipients of this year's Peacemaker Award, pose with their children Lucas and Emily. |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — More than 200 volunteers participated in 22nd annual Martin Luther King Jr. Community Day of Service.
Volunteers of all ages filled MCLA's Church Street Center on Monday after a morning of cleaning, packing, winterizing, collecting and creating at Northern Berkshire YMCA, Goodwill, Louison House, local community centers and churches and the Friendship Center Food Pantry.
The yearly event is a time to remember the calls for social justice by Dr. King and to keep his dream of equality alive.
"We have to be proactive," said Alex Daugherty, chairman of the Martin Luther King Day Committee, referring to recent strife in Ferguson, Mo., New York City and other placed. There needs to be more discussion about race, about how communities come together, about helping each other, he said, and there may have been a tendency to be complacent after the election of President Obama.
"As we leave here today, this can't be the end of what we do," he said. "This is just a segue: be active in your community, be what this day is about ...
"Get out there and do something and every day inspire yourself to be an active member of the community."
Those attending — ranging from children to the eldery, from local officials to Williams College and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts students — were encouraged to write down their solutions to creating better communities. They were also asked if they supported a task force to develop best practices to engage the residents, police and others and a public campaign to encourage dignity and respect.
"Outreach to young people is crucial," said Thomas Alexander, coordinator for multicultural affairs at MCLA. "How do we help youth tune into these issues and contribute and get to the table?"
Music, arts and other events are ways to engage youth, he said, and the colleges are also encouraging the viewing of "Selma," the recently released film focused on King and the voting rights march from Selma, Ala., in 1965. Arrangement were made to provide students access to the film at North Adams MoviePlex and next month at Images Cinema in Williamstown, with the anticipation of a discussion with college students.
State Rep. Gailanne Cariddi said she had gone to see the film.
"A lot of people in the audience were kind of like me - white-haired," she laughed. "And we kind of lived through those times. It's the youger people here we would really like to see going out to that movie ,... It has a ring of history that we all need to know, that we all need to remember."
Several participants spoke about taking inspiration from King and in becoming more active in the community to make it better.
Paul Marino, a local historian and cameraman for Northern Berkshire Community Television, said the nation has never "been willing to live up to our own ideals unless we were forced to."
"I think we have to look at our own ideals and say this is the way we want to live, this is the way we have to live."
State Sen. Benjamin B. Downing said it was important to remember that even a half-empty glass was half full.
"Yeah, we've got challenges. Everywhere has challenges, but we've got so much in this community, and we've got so much because of everyone that is in this room."
In addition to the activities, a luncheon was served by the Berkshire Food Project and participants left their thumbprints in paint on a "tree" canvas created by Jessica Sweeney. Other sponsors included MCLA, its ALANA Multicultural Center, Aramark Dining Services, inter President Cynthia Brown, Leon Peters and the Center for Service; Northern Berkshire Community Coalition; Northern Berkshire Community Television; Stop & Shop; and Williams College and its Lehman Council and Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives.
This year's Peacemaker Award was presented to Allan and Cindi McLain, who were joined by their children Lucas and Emily.
Sue Walker, a member of the MLK Committee, made the presentation, saying the McLains represented the way King "dealt from his core, he dealt from his heart, he dealt from his Lord God."
"Cindi and Al are people who just do it because it's there to get done ... and they don't make a big fuss about it," she said.
Cindi works with the ASPCA and Allan is a 25-year member of the Clarksburg Fire Department; both have helped with the annual Holocaust program at Clarksburg School and are dedicated to their church, All Saints Episcopal, and their family.
Allan McLain called the award "humbling." "We try to do what we can do," said Cindi McLain, as her husband added, "we just try to fill in the gaps."
Sometimes its the simplest thing to make life a little brighter for others, like asking about their day.
Virginia Phyllis Jarrett, 77, said she'd suffered through a lot, from being picked on as a child in North Adams to being taken where people "couldn't leave the fields" when they wanted to and had to sit in the back of the bus.
"This is why we're all here, we help each other to get a little bit farther. ...
"Smile, don't look down on the ground all the time, you've got to keep looking up," Jarrett said. "I see you frowning, I try to get you to smile — because I can't stop smiling."
Tags: community service, MLK Day, peacemaker, volunteers,
