Throughout the week of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Baldwin Wallace University honored the influential American minister and activist through a series of events and community engagement. 

Each day presented a different event that students, faculty and the community of Berea could partake in. 

The theme for this year’s celebration was “It Starts with Me: The Quest for Peace and Justice 60 Years Later.” This theme encourages students, staff and other participants in the events to think about how they can continue to strive for social change and reform.

BW’s Center for Community Engagement was directly involved in the MLK week events through the use of pop-up pantries placed at several of the events, followed by the Berea Community Prayer Breakfast on Jan 15., the Refresh and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Commemoration Candlelight Vigil on Thursday and the Social Change Submit on Saturday. 

Alaina Giovengo, the student resource coordinator in the David & Frances Brain C enter for C ommunity Engagement, was in charge of the pop-up pantries during MLK week and took part in much of the planning.

“It’s essentially us bringing what is at the Campus Cupboard to different places on campus,” Giovengo said. “The reason we do that is to make it accessible to everyone.” 

Items at the pop-up pantries include toilet paper, dish soap, detergent and body care products such as toothpaste and deodorant. The pop-up pantries also feature food items, including fruit cups, bread, microwave meals and perishables.

“People won’t be successful working toward these goals if they don’t have their basic needs taken care of,” Giovengo said. “People deserve those basic rights, but we need to give them the resources to have those.”

Another aspect that contributed to the implementation of the pop-up pantries was that these events allowed the pantries to be accessible to a wider audience. Many of the events are open to the public, allowing people from the Berea community, in addition to BW’s own students and staff, to take what they need.

“It can be accessible to students, and then faculty and staff,” Giovengo said. “And also the community because there are events open to the entire Berea community.” 

The first pop-up pantry occurred at the Berea Community Prayer Breakfast, held at Mt. Zion Baptist Church on Jan. 15 at 9 a.m. It was set up right in the lobby of the church, so students and community members could take items as they left the ceremony. 

The Berea Community Prayer Breakfast also featured keynote speaker, Jay T. Hairston Sr., who delved into several of King’s famous speeches and talked about their impact and what they mean for people today. He also talked about how King inspired him to become the person he is today. 

“Dr. King, number one, inspired me to pursue excellence in everything I do,” Hairston said. “He inspired me to pursue justice, peace, equity and inclusion in every aspect of my life and my community.” Hairston, formerly BW’s assistant dean of students and associate diversity officer and director, was previously in charge of the MLK week celebrations during his 30 years at BW. He expressed how glad he was that BW is continuing with the tradition. 

“I am especially happy to see that it’s continuing,” Hairston said. “It’s important and essential to our community.” Other events continued throughout the week, including a National Day of Racial Healing Student Jacket Circle on the evening of Jan. 16 at the Lindsay-Crossman Chapel, as well as on Friday afternoon. Students were able to go and have discussions with their peers about their experiences. 

Following the Candlelight Vigil, there was a Lecture Panel hosted by the MLK Commemoration Committee, where anyone could ask the panelists questions and talk more about this year’s theme, “It Starts with Me.” Panelists include Myeshka Watkins, the executive director of the Cleveland Peacemakers Alliance, Craig Hovey, the executive director for the Ashland Center for Nonviolence at Ashland University and Otis Moss Jr., a civil rights leader and friend of King. 

The celebrations ended on Saturday with the Social Change Summit, sponsored by the Center for Community Engagement.