When Syracuse Deputy Mayor Sharon Owens spoke at Dr. King Elementary School on Saturday, she reminded listeners about the importance of acknowledging their talents.

“Remember you are gifted,” Owens said during her speech. “There are gifts that you were born with that you are finding out day by day that you have. It doesn’t matter that whether somebody taught you, it doesn’t matter whether somebody recognizes your gift; what does matter is that you recognize your gift.”

These words were part of Owens’s keynote address at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Celebration, which was part of an ongoing partnership between Syracuse University and the Syracuse City School District. The SCSD hopes to continue this community interaction during Black History Month.

Dr. King Elementary School will enable parents on Monday to participate in National African American Parent Involvement Day by attending classes with their children. Community Engagement Site Director Stephanie Ellen Parks said Dr. King is considered a community school.

“And within that, we want to be considered as a hub for resources,” she said. “We offer opportunities and resources for parents and families and students, and it all leads back around to raising the academics for students.”

Syracuse Deputy Mayor Sharon Owens made the keynote address. Mateo Estling | Staff Writer

In addition to National African American Parent Involvement Day, the school will host a reading by storyteller ~jack e grace!, who will read the West African folktale “Leeroy the Wide Mouth Frog” to students.

“Since it’s Black History Month, we’ve looked to interact with the community in different ways and with different interests,” Parks said.

Attendees at Saturday’s event honored King’s life and legacy and participated in family-friendly activities, including African drumming, storytelling and dance lessons from SU’s Outlaws Dance Troupe. At the celebration, the Dr. King PEACE Awards were distributed, and winners for an essay contest based on a King quote were announced. The PEACE Awards were given to students nominated by teachers for exemplifying King’s peaceful ways.

Dr. King Principal Andrea Ellis-Smith said the event helps children learn about the history of King, who spoke at SU in 1965. She added that SU and the SCSD have tried to reinvigorate their connection in recent years.

The community event began in connection with the MLK Celebration dinner at the Carrier Dome, said Syeisha Byrd, director of engagement programs at Hendricks Chapel.

“(The event) used to be held at local churches outside of the community and then moved to Dr. King Elementary,” Byrd said. “Since then, we have rotated it around the city, and this year we thought it would be nice to bring it back home.”

In a student body with 88 percent students of color, Ellis-Smith said the event is a great learning opportunity for the community.

“One of the long-standing traditions here at Dr. King Elementary, because we are his namesake, is to really pay homage during this month of February,” she said. “A lot of times with our young people, they hear about the present, but they really don’t know about the plight of people of color and how we came to be in having some of the freedoms we have today.”

Published on February 11, 2018 at 8:44 pm

Contact Mateo: mtestlin@syr.edu