The 10th annual Greenwich Academy all-school assembly celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was held on Jan. 25. Reflecting on a decade of celebrations here on campus, this year’s assembly called “Building the Dream” had a new perspective: commemorating the October 2011 opening of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in Washington, D.C. A truly collaborative effort, the morning featured student speakers and musicians from Groups I to XII who shared thoughts and songs to honor Dr. King’s enduring influence.
The Lower School presented a video in which girls offered their thoughts on GA’s 2012 theme – citizenship – and how the GA community might act as good citizens to carry out Dr. King’s timeless dream. The audience also was treated to a video of the PC and CC girls exercising their civil rights. They had, the day before, made paper-plate peace signs and crafted a petition of requests (more flowers around school, a repainted shed) to carry to Mrs. King in a peaceful, colorful march from their Ridgeview Avenue schoolhouse to the main campus. In a moving tribute, Middle and Upper School girls offered personal reflections on a quotation they had selected from those engraved on the new MLK Jr. Memorial. Messages of acceptance, endurance and integrity pervaded their words.
The morning was also the moment for an unveiling of a campus memorial for Dr. King. An eight-foot mosaic of his figure and words like “peace” and “democracy,” featuring the handiwork of Upper and Middle School artists, is now on display in the campus dining room. The audience also watched reverently, as it does each year, an excerpted clip of Dr. King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. This year – 10 years later – special attention was paid to recognizing the continued significance and historical perspective of this speech.
