(previous)
Selectmen Chair Kathy Fagan expressed the prevalent feeling of hope in her remarks, noting that this year’s celebration was “especially poignant, falling as it does one day before the inauguration for the first African-American president of the United States. How far we have come as a nation and a people.”
However, she reminded the community, “There still remains much work to be done before we are truly one nation under God.” She said the celebration’s theme, “The Power of One,” exemplified by Dr. Martin Luther King, recognized that while one voice can lead us to change, “only when other voices join with the first can we truly achieve justice for all.”
The Afternoon Singers of Glover and Tucker elementary schools, led by April Allegrezza, and the Milton High School Gospel Choir, led by Dr. Noreen Burdett, performing both separately and together, provided an exuberant musical program which often had the audience clapping along.
The service highlighted the talents of Milton youth who submitted essays, poetry and artwork inspired by the accomplishments of Dr. King. A display of the entries from all grade levels at both the public and parochial schools adorned the walls of the Temple’s sanctuary. This year’s winners for the essay/poetry contest were Elizabeth Mahon, Mariel Sager, and Felicia Iyamu, with Aaron Sanchez winning the award for best artwork. All are students at Milton High School. Winners are awarded scholarships to a six-day leadership initiative training program.
Yolanda Beech, vice principal at Milton High School, introduced last year’s essay contest winner, Chekara Jean, a 10th-grader. When she returned from the leadership initiative training, Jean founded Milton High’s Diversity Alliance – which, she explained, “brings together representatives from all of Milton High School’s organizations to create common goals to help better the high school.”
Jean has also begun a quest, along with Katherine Sullivan, an MHS adjustment counselor and advisor to the Diversity Alliance, to locate Ruth Powell, a black woman who graduated from Milton High School in 1940 and went on to study at Howard University. While at Howard, she organized a “stool-in” with fellow students when she was refused service at a restaurant under the Jim Crow laws that still existed in Washington, D.C.
Participants also listened to a recording of Dr. King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech and were moved by the recognition that part of Dr. King’s dream was being realized in the inauguration of President Obama.
A puppet show based on the children’s book What if the Zebras Lost Their Stripes? was performed by the puppeteers of St. Agatha Church, led by their pastor, Rev. Peter Casey. Rev. Bob Poitras, Noel Schaub and Debbie Riley, who writes the puppeteers’ scripts, joined him. The moral of the tale was to “be yourself.”
The celebration was preceded by a dinner prepared by the Temple’s Sisterhood. Milton High School students also presented a dramatization of historical figures using the refrain of “turn the page” with each promising to write the next chapter in history.
In addition to Fagan, Selectmen John Shields and Marion McEttrick were in attendance, as well as Town Administrator Kevin J. Mearn, School Committee members Lynda-Lee Sheridan and Mary Kelly, School Superintendent Mary Gormley, and Assistant Superintendent John Phelan.
Rev. Jeff Johnson, pastor of the First Congregational Church, called Miltonians to action in the final benediction:
“May the Lord plague you and torment you;
May the Lord give you an impossible task
And challenge you to meet it.
May the Lord enable you to do your very best
And then, and only then, may the Lord grant you peace.”
The Milton Interfaith Clergy Association is open to all clergy in Milton, including the chaplains at Milton Hospital and Milton Academy. Representing a diversity of religious perspectives, they come together to build understanding and work for the common good in Milton.