Nyack College Celebrates 10 Years of its Social Justice Celebration

This year, Nyack College’s annual Social Justice Celebration will be a dinner instead of a luncheon.

That’s because the celebration is celebrating its 10th year.

Begun a decade ago as a prelude to observing the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, Nyack’s Social Justice Celebration keeps alive Dr. King’s dream of the “beloved community,” college officials said in a press release.

Social Justice Awards in 2015 go to:

• John Murphy, a longtime member of the Rockland County Legislature, who represents Pearl River, Orangeburg, Blauvelt and Tappan
• Wilbur Aldridge, regional director of the Mid-Hudson Westchester NAACP
• Holocaust Museum & Study Center at Rockland Community College
• Paulo Feteira and Jose David Martinez, co-owners of Union Restaurant in Haverstraw

Feteira and Martinez receive their special recognition for the charitable work they have done in the community, college officials said. In February 2014, for the sixth year, Union Restaurant was closed for regular business and a three-day event was hosted to feed families adversely affected by economic hardship.

Dramatic performances will feature 2008 Nyack alumnus, Robert “Quote” Rosa, sharing his riveting spoken word piece, “Dreams Kill Kings,” and Devonte Gilchrist performing an excerpt from “The Other America,” by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Nyack College’s inaugural Social Justice Day event honored Rockland County Civil Rights Hall of Fame inductee and NAACP Nyack Branch president Frances Pratt and featured keynote speaker Jane Elliot, an internationally known diversity trainer and originator of the famous “blue eyes/brown eyes” exercise that categorizes participants as inferior or superior based solely upon the color of their eyes.

Past recipients of the Social Justice Day Award have included elected officials of Rockland County, pastors, educators, local merchants, and community activists. The Martin Luther King Multi-Purpose Center, a nonprofit that offers educational, medical, cultural, social, and recreational programs to children, adults and elders and Leadership Rockland, Inc., a program for emerging and existing leaders in business, government and nonprofit sectors of the County, were honored last year.

The event on Jan. 18 at Nyack Seaport, 21 Burd Street in Nyack begins with a 5:30 p.m. reception for the honorees before dinner.

For tickets contact Erica Videc at 845.675.4426 or Erica.Videc@nyack.edu.

PHOTO: National Archives, via Wikimedia Commons, “Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C.”