MLK National Holiday Community Breakfast is Back on 1/16

Everyone is invited to join in Falmouth’s community celebration of the life and legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the 2023 MLK National Holiday Community Breakfast. This event will be held at the Sea Crest Beach Resort in North Falmouth on Monday, January 16 from 9:15 A.M. until 11:00 A.M. The morning will include a full breakfast, live musical entertainment, participation by Falmouth students, keynote speaker Henry St. Julien, Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging, Falmouth Public Schools, and a special presentation to members of the Woods Hole Diversity Advisory Committee, recipient of No Place for Hate – Falmouth’s Civic Leadership Award.

This breakfast is hosted and organized by Falmouth’s No Place for Hate group, which works to combat bias, build bridges, and promote respect for everyone in our community through advocacy and education. Tickets are $25 for adults and $15 for students and can be purchased online through the No Place for Hate – Falmouth website at www.npfhfalmouth.org. There you can find instructions on how to order a ticket by mail. The deadline for ticket sales and reservations is January 11. Additional donations are also accepted to help offset the cost of this event and financial assistance is available to those in need. Please send your request to npfhfalmouth@gmail.com. Tickets will be sold at the door only if space is available and will cost $30 for adults and $20 for students. Honoring the legacy of Rev. Dr. King, Jr. includes bringing a donation of one of the following non-perishable items for the Falmouth Service Center: apple juice (64oz.), pancake mix, canned chicken, ketchup, juice boxes, baby wipes.

Henry St. Julien’s keynote speech will address the topic “Creating a Beloved Community on the Cape: steps towards a vision of the Cape where all take quantitative steps so marginalized people will thrive.” Mr. St. Julien began his current role as the Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging in 2022. Born in New York City, he grew up in the nation of Haiti for the first five years and then returned to the United States as an English learner student in the Framingham and Marlborough Public Schools. He received a BA at Gordon College, a master degree in Education at Framingham State University, and a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study (CAGS) in Educational Leadership and Management program at Fitchburg State University. Mr. St. Julien began his teaching career in 1994 at Wareham High School as a History teacher and then became the assistant principal at Falmouth High School in 2016. His work on diversity includes leading a Global Education Team in Falmouth promoting local diversity and international student engagement, as well as multiple student diversity clubs in Wareham and Falmouth. We invite you to attend the breakfast to hear what Mr. St. Julien has to report from his years of educational and community experience, his vision of the future, and the work ahead to do to create a beloved community.

We will also recognize the longstanding work of the Woods Hole Diversity Advisory Committee (DAC), recipient of this year’s Civic Leadership Award from No Place for Hate – Falmouth. In 2004, the leaders of six Woods Hole science institutions signed a memorandum committing their institutions to work together to attract and retain a more diverse workforce. That memorandum established the Woods Hole Scientific Community Diversity Initiative, which in turn established an advisory committee to make recommendations as to how the institutions can make the village a more diverse, more inclusive community - that's the DAC. For almost two decades, DAC has made recommendations about ways the science institutions can do a better job of welcoming a diverse pool of scholars, students and employees to the science institutions. Its initiatives, such as the Ambrose Jearld, Jr. Lecture, community listening sessions, activities for Black History Month, and many more, benefit the entire community, not just the scientific institutions and Woods Hole, and have expanded significantly over the years. We join in honoring their collaborative, ongoing dedication and work.