AUBURN - Taped to the front door, the letters drawn and filled in with crayon colors, the piece of paper read: “I HAVE A DREAM.”
Those words circled the message, written in smaller letters, “that one day everyone will be treated equally.”
Inside that door of the Booker T. Washington Community Center Saturday, the voice of Martin Luther King Jr. called out to the children attending the annual celebration of his birthday in many ways.
Members of the Dreams and Explorers after-school program at the center participated in a coloring contest and their own “I Have a Dream” speech contest, but before the winners were announced, teen member Shantel Robinson stood alone at the microphone and delivered the original version.
“My favorite part is the last line - ‘Thank God Almighty we are free at last,'” Robinson said. “He wasn't afraid to express his feelings, even though he knew bad things could happen.”
Courage and self esteem, using the civil rights leader as inspiration, were the themes of the brunch.
A skit performed by teen members of the Holy Ghost Deliverance Center consisted of players portraying a pregnant teen, a young mother, a pimp and street walker arguing that school was unnecessary.
“Who needs school, who needs college?” the first asked.
“She don't even know how hard it is to have a baby,” said the second.
Enter Eloise Benjamin, a local youth pastor.
“Who told you, you couldn't make it?” she shouted at the two.
“My mother,” they answered.
“You can make it!” Benjamin yelled.
The give and take repeated with each character.
An intensely inspirational message was delivered by Keith Copes, minister of the Apostolic Church of Jesus Christ in Syracuse, who once worked at the center.
“Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a great man of god,” said Copes to the audience of parents and children. “He was a Baptist minister. If he were here today, he would tell you the most important thing was he was a minister.”
He also had a mentor, Copes said. “Dr. King understood you need an education. Where are the kids?” he asked, looking out into the group. “You all need to stay in school! Young girls, you don't need a boyfriend until you graduate from college.
“I don't care if they don't invite me back. You all listen to 50-Cent, G-Unit, Eminem. All they are glorifying is drug, violence and sex.”
Calls of “Amen” were interspersed from the audience throughout the sermon. Gertrude Richardson, of Auburn, said Copes' words rang true.
“The music my grandson listens to, the language they use, children having children,” she said, “(it's) a lost generation.”
Inside that door of the Booker T. Washington Community Center Saturday, the voice of Martin Luther King Jr. called out to the children attending the annual celebration of his birthday in many ways.
Members of the Dreams and Explorers after-school program at the center participated in a coloring contest and their own “I Have a Dream” speech contest, but before the winners were announced, teen member Shantel Robinson stood alone at the microphone and delivered the original version.
“My favorite part is the last line - ‘Thank God Almighty we are free at last,'” Robinson said. “He wasn't afraid to express his feelings, even though he knew bad things could happen.”
Courage and self esteem, using the civil rights leader as inspiration, were the themes of the brunch.
A skit performed by teen members of the Holy Ghost Deliverance Center consisted of players portraying a pregnant teen, a young mother, a pimp and street walker arguing that school was unnecessary.
“Who needs school, who needs college?” the first asked.
“She don't even know how hard it is to have a baby,” said the second.
Enter Eloise Benjamin, a local youth pastor.
“Who told you, you couldn't make it?” she shouted at the two.
“My mother,” they answered.
“You can make it!” Benjamin yelled.
The give and take repeated with each character.
An intensely inspirational message was delivered by Keith Copes, minister of the Apostolic Church of Jesus Christ in Syracuse, who once worked at the center.
“Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a great man of god,” said Copes to the audience of parents and children. “He was a Baptist minister. If he were here today, he would tell you the most important thing was he was a minister.”
He also had a mentor, Copes said. “Dr. King understood you need an education. Where are the kids?” he asked, looking out into the group. “You all need to stay in school! Young girls, you don't need a boyfriend until you graduate from college.
“I don't care if they don't invite me back. You all listen to 50-Cent, G-Unit, Eminem. All they are glorifying is drug, violence and sex.”
Calls of “Amen” were interspersed from the audience throughout the sermon. Gertrude Richardson, of Auburn, said Copes' words rang true.
“The music my grandson listens to, the language they use, children having children,” she said, “(it's) a lost generation.”
