There’s a special celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s legacy happening at Barrington High School tomorrow at 2PM. The Barrington Children’s Choir, Bataille Academy dancers, student groups and local church leaders will come together to share Dr. King’s message of pursuing dreams that make the world a better place.
The program is called “Delivering the Dream” and will last about an hour and fifteen minutes. Performers will bring to life specific voices from the past of great leaders like Dr. King, Cesar Chavez and Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Abraham Lincoln. “And in each case they will describe the dream they had to make the world better and how they were able to persevere and either achieve the dream or set in place the mechanism for others to live it out so that it wouldn’t die.” Community Church of Barrington Reverend, Dr. Zina Jacque, invited me to drop by their rehearsal yesterday.
Reverend Jacque says, for her, “Martin Luther King Day is a day on and not a day off. It’s a day for service and for recommitting to his dream…”
“His dream of equality is part of what makes possible the fact that I am an African American woman pastoring a church in Barrington.” Rev. Jacque is the first person of color to be a senior pastor in Barrington. She says, “The likelihood that I would become pastor of this church was greater because Dr. King lived and fought so that people might be recognized simply for who they are; the content of their character versus the color of their skin.”
Tomorrow’s program will take place in the auditorium at Barrington High School. It’s the community’s second annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. celebration and it’s organized by the Barrington Area Ministerial Association and sponsored by two student leadership groups, Code Red and The Latino Leadership Team. The cost of admission is either $5 to go toward next year’s program or 5 toiletry items to be donated to people without shelter by an organization called “The Night Ministry”. You can learn more about the Chicago-based group on their website at NightMinistry.org and you’ll find the High School at 616 W. Main Street in Barrington.
