PNC Hosts Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Activities

WESTVILLE – Purdue University North Central will be the site of the 12th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Breakfast on Monday, Jan. 21 at 8 a.m. in the Library-Student-Faculty Building cafeteria. The event, sponsored by the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Committee and Purdue North Central, is free and open to the public. The event’s theme is “Stepping Up:  Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase."

D. Alexander Scott, Community Relations coordinator for Blue Chip Casino, will be the moderator for the breakfast. Rev. David Swarn, pastor of the New Life A.M.E. Church in Merrillville, will offer the invocation and benediction. 

The featured speaker is O'Merrial Butchee.  An entrepreneur, business leader and author, Butchee retired as the former treasurer of the American Can Company. She joined Ivy Tech Community College where she saw a community of people who were caring and desiring to help its students, staff and faculty positively impact its region. She became a part of that environment when she was appointed an adjunct professor in 1997.

She also shares her abilities, skills and knowledge with her community as the Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana Northwest director of the Gerald I. Lamkin Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center. The center is located at the Gary campus and serves the East Chicago, Michigan City and Valparaiso Campuses.

The Soul Steppers under the direction of Lyn Isbell, will perform at the breakfast.  

Breakfast participants are asked to bring a book to be donated to the annual Bring a Book to Breakfast program, sponsored by the PNC Student Education Association. Books will be donated to local literacy projects. 

As part of the breakfast activities, the winners of the local essay contest for children will be announced. PNC Alumnus Roscoe Hoffman will perform at the piano.

Following the breakfast the annual PNC Dialogue will take place in LSF Room 144. Janell Irving, PNC grants writer, will moderate the discussion, “Diversity in the Classroom - Reflections on Brown vs Board of Education and Daisy Bates and the Little Rock Nine.” The speaker will be Shontrai Irving, attorney.

From 10 a.m. to noon, students in the PNC Department of Education, led by Dr. David Pratt, assistant professor of Education, will travel to the Michigan City Public Library to lead a series of activities for children, including games and coloring that will help children learn and understand the meaning of the day. Youngsters will listen to a reading of a Martin Luther King Jr., book and listen to his “I Have a Dream” speech. Participants will have an opportunity to make a cloud that states their dream for the world.
The Michigan City Public Library at 100 E. 4th St., and the LaPorte County Public Library at 904 Indiana Ave. in LaPorte will also host the “Talk to the Lawyer Free Today” event from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. No appointments necessary for this opportunity to talk to an attorney about legal issues, free of charge.  This is sponsored by the Indiana State Bar Association, LaPorte Co. Bar Association, Indiana Pro Bono Commission and the First Judicial District Pro Bono Committee, Inc.

To round out the day's activities, PNC students, faculty, staff and community members are invited to join a Martin Luther King Jr. Day Service Project at one of three community agencies - Michiana Resources, the city of LaPorte and the LaPorte YMCA. Volunteers may contact project coordinator Gary Demski, PNC director of Student Activities, at gdemski@pnc.edu or call 800-872-1231, ext. 5479 to register.  Matt Cook is the contact for the City of LaPorte project.

Donations are being accepted for the Rev. Martin Luther King Community Celebration fund. Project donors include  Blue Chip Casino and Hotel; the City of LaPorte; Horizon Bank; LaPorte Savings Bank; Swanson Center; the City of Michigan City, Northwestern Indiana Ministers Conference of Michigan City, Sisters of St. Francis Health Service and an anonymous donor.

Additional information about the Martin Luther King Jr. Day activities may be obtained by contacting Patricia A. Carlisle, PNC special assistant to the chancellor, at pcarlisle@pnc.edu or 800-872-1231, ext. 5241.  Persons with disabilities requiring accommodations should Carlisle by noon on Friday, Jan. 18.

#