LIHUE — St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Lihue will be hosting a Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration Monday.
“This year’s Martin Luther King Day for me is dedicated to promoting what Dr. King called his 10 rules for success for everyone,” said organizer Steve Backinoff.
“The rules are: Believe in yourself, be fearless, fight for yourself, keep moving, follow your morals, act now, be determined to achieve excellence, stay true to your principles, stand for something, have a dream.”
A promotional poster calls for Kauai residents to “Keep Reverend King’s message and dream alive in our community.”
Each of the program’s four hours will feature inspirational music, time for contemplation and educational speakers, like Kumu Puna Dawson, Mahina Olores, Pastor Al Rogers and Charles Woolfork, among others, according to Backinoff.
Annaleah Atkinson, who has coordinated this event for many years, will present a segment on mediation and compassionate communication.
The tribute to the civil rights activist and Baptist minister is sponsored by the Interfaith Roundtable of Kauai. It begins at 2 p.m.
Admission is free.
In a letter to The Garden Island, Backinoff said that he hopes it will be “a spring board for all of our Kauai ohana to discover the will, and strength of conviction, and intelligence mixed with love that will change challenges we have with housing, traffic, education, employment, environmental protection, food production, health, sustainability, domestic violence and addictions toward cooperative solutions that we may not have even dreamed possible YET.”
King’s 90th birthday would have been today, Jan. 15.
“Martin Luther King , Jr. has had great impact on my life and I believe on all of our lives despite being assassinated when only 39 years old,” Backinoff wrote. “Last year , we commemorated 50 years since he was killed in Memphis. I was an 18-year-old high school senior when I received that shocking news on April 4, 1968.”
For more information or to volunteer, contact Steve Backinoff at sbackinoff24@gmail.com or 346-2587.
