After his speech, Jesse Moore greets students, staff and community members who attended the breakfast. Joe Addison // AS Review
By Kiaya Wilson
To celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Western, in collaboration with Whatcom Community College, hosted their second annual free community breakfast on Monday, Jan. 20.
Students, staff and faculty members from both Western and Whatcom Community filled the Viking Commons along with Bellingham community members.
Jana Obune, a fourth-year student at Western, opened the event by reciting “Still I Rise,” a poem written by Maya Angelou. Leonard Jones, director of campus housing at Western, followed with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr.
“If we are not careful, our colleges will produce a group of close-minded, unscientific, illogical propagandas consumed with immoral acts,” Jones said.
“Be careful brethren, be careful teachers,” Jones said, adding, “be careful Bellingham.” The last part was not from the original Martin Luther King Jr. quote, but its addition made it more personal.
Sabah Randhawa, president of Western, took a moment to discuss the importance of diversity on Western’s campus.
“We gather today not just to celebrate Dr. King’s legacy and compassionate wisdom,” Randhawa said. “But to reflect and take stock of our own commitments to advance justice and the claims of our shared humanity.”
Randhawa continued to speak about Dr. King’s legacy while connecting it to Western’s work on increasing diversity and making Western a safer place for marginalized communities on campus.
“Advancing inclusive success is Western’s highest priority and that include attracting, retaining and graduating a more diverse student body, eliminating achievement gaps and creating an educational environment including a more diverse faculty that promotes growth and success,” Randhawa said.
Randhawa added that Western created a Strategic Plan just over a year ago which showcases the administration’s commitment to focusing on equity, inclusion and diversity. He said there has been progress made but there is still work to be done.
“This is our shared work for we must all take responsibility,” Randhawa said. “I thank you all for engaging in that work, wherever you are, and reaching out through your relationships to bring Dr. King’s ideal into reality.”
Randhawa then introduced the keynote speaker for the event, Jesse Moore.
Moore graduated from Western in 2005 with a bachelor’s degree in political science. He then went on to work in the admissions office where he restructured Western’s major outreach programs, specifically targeting people from low-income and high-density communities.
“It’s kind of fitting to be back here in this building for me to be talking about Martin Luther King,” Moore said. “I remember learning a lot about my blackness, I’m biracial, white and black, here at Western and here at Bellingham, which is ironic.”
Moore continued to talk about his experience as a student at Western and how he discovered more about his identity.
“I was born as an activist here on this campus,” Moore said. Moore mentioned his time as president of the Black Student Union and his involvement with African Carribean Club.
Moore described a trip he took with his mother to Washington D.C. to see the unveiling of the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial at the National Mall. The event had been cancelled because of hurricane Irma, but they still got to enjoy their trip, Moore added.
“He [a White House employee] showed my mom every inch of the White House,” Moore said. “It really brought me back to what I was there to do, which was to serve.”
Moore spoke on how this event made him realize even when things look bad, there is always something better coming.
“Etched in Dr. King’s statue are those words: ‘from a mountain of despair, a stone of hope’,” Moore said. “But if there is a stone of hope in this mountain of despair it’s you [the young people].”
Moore ended his speech with a call to action for students and the community. He began by asking everyone what they think Martin Luther King Jr. would be doing if he were alive today.
“I think he would be lacing up some Stacy Adams shoes, and he’d be marching,” Moore said. ”He’d be in Red Square trying to get you to work. It’s time to work.”
Along with a celebration breakfast, Western partnered with the Volunteer Center for Whatcom County to put on their second annual day of service. The service opportunities were volunteering at the SPARK Museum of Electrical Invention or at Whatcom Falls Park.
Volunteers at the SPARK Museum worked on cleaning up the museum.
Tana Granack is the director of operations for Sparks Museum. He started working at the museum as a volunteer himself and has worked there for 20 years now.
“We are honored to be a part of the day of service,” Granack said. “I like that people from the community come [to volunteer].”
Lauren Duett is a junior at Sehome High School who volunteered at the SPARK Museum for the event.
“I feel like today is about coming together and contributing to the community,” Duett said. “I’m really happy to be here.”
Granack said the museum has participated in the day of service event for 10 years.
“[It’s] always been great,” Granack said. “It was really cool in the early years when we had bigger projects [because] you can see what they did.”
Granack said last year 12 to 14 people showed up to help repaint one of the walls in the museum.
Granack said he loves seeing people get excited about electricity and science through their visits to the museum.
“We think we’re a worthy non-profit,” Granack said. “If I can’t get a kid excited about science, I don’t know where to send them. It’s really gratifying.”
Volunteers at Whatcom Falls Park worked to clear park trails of invasive Himalayan blackberry bushes. The organizations that hosted the event were Washington Trails Association, the City of Bellingham and Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association (NSEA).
Baylee Bamford and Rylee Phillips are two Western students that participated in this event.
“[We wanted to] give back to society,” Bamford said.
Bamford and Phillips said they learned about this event through an internship Phillips got at NSEA last year and they wanted to continue participating in the program.
Anya Roemer-Cominos, another Western student who attended both the event and the community breakfast that morning, said both events were a great experience and she’s been trying to get more involved in the community.
“[I was] so inspired by the speech,” Roemer-Cominos said. “Like, holy shit. Just to see someone volunteer, I have to do something.”
Roemer-Cominos said these events were a good way for her to start her day.
“I should be doing this all the time,” Roemer-Cominos said.
These events helped to promote community service and continue the spread of Martin Luther King Jr.’s message.