Our Lady of Guadalupe students’ Inauguration Day tribute to MLK

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

That “unity wreath” — cutouts of hundreds of handprints — is one of the ways students at West Seattle’s Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic School paid tribute this afternoon to Dr. King, one day after his official holiday, on the day a dream came true in D.C. The entire OLG student body, preschool through 8th grade, gathered in the church sanctuary at 35th/Myrtle (map) to read, sing, and pray, and the spirit of their words and music, on this historic day, could not help but move even the most hard-hearted onlooker. Third-graders read short tributes to people in their lives who they believe exemplified some of Dr. King’s values; one student honored her mom — “In my family, she is the peacekeeper”; another, his big brother — “He stands up for me”; and another student, President Obama, saying he and Dr. King “both want peace.” After reinforcing that by praying a Litany of Peace, students went out to the campus’s north grounds to release dozens of doves:

OLG school staff told us the doves are more like homing pigeons — after releases like this, they fly back to their keeper’s home. Side note: The school has an open house this Sunday – 9:30 am-1 pm.

7 Replies to "Our Lady of Guadalupe students' Inauguration Day tribute to MLK"

  • Jeannie January 20, 2009 (5:48 pm)

    The unity wreath is lovely.

  • ellenater January 20, 2009 (10:12 pm)

    I missed this even though my son is a third grader at OLG. I knew NOTHING of this. He often loses papers and his news is usually relating to how tag went down at recess. When I saw this, I said, “You released doves at school and didn’t tell me?!”. He said, “Ya. I watched for a minute. But then I was cold”…

  • WSB January 20, 2009 (10:17 pm)

    We can relate to that. Used to be like pulling teeth. Only reason we know everything that goes on at “school” now is that the 7th grader attends “school” from the laptop four feet away from me. If we released any birds in here, I think it would give the cats heart attacks. The indoors portion of the OLG event was particularly moving; I wish I could have videotaped it, but they didn’t have waivers from all students so that wasn’t allowed. The students did a GREAT job – TR

  • ellenater January 21, 2009 (9:58 am)

    Thanks, TR. I’ll bet it was. The kids’ Masses are always pretty great. This one sounds even better… And we were getting pretty close to home schooling, too! OLG turned out to be a good fit…

  • don samardich January 21, 2009 (11:06 am)

    miss fulmer is a wonderful teacher and person. great mentor for children.

  • ellenater January 21, 2009 (4:03 pm)

    She is! And even though this is her first year teaching, she is doing the job of a seasoned pro.

  • judyd January 21, 2009 (4:07 pm)

    Glad to see that OLG is celebrating MLK – when my kid went there they did nothing – for that or any other culturally diverse event – they needed to be more inclusive, great job on the progress!

Sorry, comment time is over.