A day to celebrate peace and diversity is scheduled Friday, Jan. 18, at 9:30 a.m. in CSUB’s Dore Theater.
The first Martin Luther King Jr. Peace and Diversity Celebration will have more than 200 fourth through sixth graders attending from several local elementary schools. The students will hear discussions about people who have made a positive impact on society from different cultures, and watch video about American civil rights leaders and other figures who fought for civil rights in the United States.
At the end of the program, the students will participate in a “freedom march,” marching from the Dore Theater to Runner Park.
CSUB’s School of Education is hosting the event.
Keynote speaker will be Dee Slade, longtime Bakersfield businesswoman and activist.
Hometown Buffet will present essay award winning students with gift certificates to Hometown Buffet restaurant. Rowdy Roadrunner will also be on hand to present contest prizes.
The Martin Luther King Jr. Peace and Diversity Celebration is the brainchild of two CSUB graduate students, Anita Madden and Davina Hoyt.
Madden said she got the idea after the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. “A lot of people developed a stereotypical view of Arabs that troubled me,” Madden said. To help combat that, she decided to launch an event to help children learn about different cultures and how American freedoms developed. She approached Hoyt, and together they created the event.
For more information about the Martin Luther King Jr. Peace and Diversity Celebration, call Hoyt at 335-7574.
Runner@csubak.edu