Celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

January 14, 2022

Naveah (left) quietly colors beside her mom, Arica, during the MLK Day pop-up at Martha O’Bryan.

On Friday, January 14th, in the spirit of celebration leading up to the Martin Luther King Day holiday weekend, our own Family Coach Team as part of the Family Success Network presented their first installment of pop-up events right in the Martha O’Bryan Lobby.  

“Families and community members were invited to come and partake in hot chocolate, cookie decorations and discuss,” says J.B. Wheeler, Family Coach Manager at Martha O’Bryan. In addition to showing powerful footage of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on a television in the background, organizers of the event created an “I Have a Dream” wall, where participants were encouraged to write or illustrate their dreams. 

David happily plays games on a smartphone as his mom and sister decorate cookies.

“The families and community members participating in an “dreams” activity were participants wrote down what their dreams were for themselves for the future on a paper cloud,” Wheeler says. These dreams we then displayed on the “Dreams Wall.”

Shyla is anything but shy as she takes a break from coloring and decorating cookies.

Several clients and families participated, keeping Family Coaches very busy. Our coaches included Lisa, Josie, Raven and Shamario, who enjoyed cutting out cloud shapes for participants to write on and handing out markers and crayons. Many of them joined participants in placing their dreams on the wall. 

Proud mom, Anastasia, dotes over her son, Mason, as they decorate and eat cookies.

“Participants fellowshipped with each other and staff and talked about what dreams they would like to see fulfilled in their community,” Wheeler continues. On this cold winter’s day, everyone enjoyed hot cocoa as they decorated and ate cookies. After being asked about attendance, he could barely contain his excitement, saying, “We had nine families attend this program!”

This is the first of many successful pop-ups put on by the Family Success Network at Martha O’Bryan. You can catch one every Friday, from 1-3pm. Today’s pop-up is from 1-2 pm in the Martha O’Bryan lobby.

As if the attendee “cute quotient” couldn’t get any higher during the day’s festivities, little Emalichi arrived in a Baby Yoda hoodie to brighten everyone’s day.