AMONG THOSE TAKING part in yesterday’s Martin Luther King Day celebration were members of the Woodville School Dance Group. (Neil Zolot Photo)

By NEIL ZOLOT

WAKEFIELD – For the first time since 2020, festivities celebrating Martin Luther King Day were held in the Galvin Middle School auditorium Monday, January 16.

“How great it is to be here in person,” said Town Council chair Mehreen Butt, who acted as emcee for the day.

As has become customary, the Human Rights Commission designates the day as Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King Day, to also honor Mrs. King and her role in the civil rights movement. “Doctor and Mrs. King built a community together, so we felt it was appropriate to recognize both,” HRC Chair Eileen Rooney explained.

The program included a video of King’s I Have a Dream speech delivered in Washington, D.C. 40 years ago. “That was powerful,” HRC member Nicole Jacob said after the speech. “I hope everybody understood the words we are still trying to manifest today.”

DANCERS WITH OrigiNation performed at the town’s celebration of the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King in the Galvin Middle School auditorium. (Neil Zolot Photo)

She announced the winners of the MLK & CSK Coloring and Poetry Contests. The Poetry Contest was won by Woodville School student Del’Angelo Townsend, for his poem “I Am,” which he read with his grandmother Angela Driggers earlier in the ceremony.

Alluding to King’s speech, Driggers said, “Today we thank him for his dream.”

The Coloring Contest winners were all students in Courtney Leahy’s 1st Grade class at the Dolbeare School.

The Community Member Award, announced by Rooney, was given to Patricia Consullo Schneider, 81, a retired teacher, administrator and school psychologist who worked in every school in the town and was a key player in establishing Special Education programs in the school system. “My goal was to make a difference in the lives of the students I served,” she said. “To the students here today I have a message. You have the power to make non-violent social change. We can make a difference in the corner of the world we work in. With a word or an action, you can fulfill the words of Dr. King.”


ANIA JACOB, Max Jacob, Vanessa Westlake and Benjamin Blackstone were part of yesterday’s MLK Day celebration. (Neil Zolot Photo)

Rooney also announced the winner of the Local Community Organization Award, the Sweetser Lecture Series, which takes place in the High School Savings Bank Theater.

The ceremony also included the reading of Amanda Gorman’s “The Hill We Climb” by High School students Añia and Max Jacob, the children of Nicole Jacob; Youth Council chair Vanessa Westlake and Middle School student Benjamin Blackstone, Rooney’s son. “I wanted to do something to help bring the community together, but let people know injustice is still happening,” said Añia Jacob, who is also vice-president of the High School Black Student Union. “If we bring it to light we can spread the word.”

Westlake is also a student volunteer with the HRC. “I’m dedicated to what they stand for,” she said.

The program also included dance performances by a group from the Woodville School, reprising a performance from the school’s multicultural fair in November with the help of dance instructor Kelley St. Hilaire and a group from the OrigiNation Cultural Arts Center in Jamaica Plain. The connection to OrigiNation came through the METCO program at the high school.


DEL’ANGELO TOWNSEND, a Woodville student, read his contest-winning poem “I Am” with Angela Driggers during yesterday’s MLK Day celebration. (Neil Zolot Photo)

Also speaking was Even Reppert, the Youth Leadership Coordinator of the Stoneham-Wakefield Boys and Girls Clubs, who announced there will be a mural painting day at the clubs Saturday, February 4. The Wakefield club is at 467 Main St., in the Americal Civic Center.

Town Council member Jonathan Chines called the ceremony “great. It was inspiring and wonderful to be back at Galvin in person.” He also recalled the 2020 ceremony as one of the last open public events before such gatherings were stopped because of COVID.