This Week

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Tbp: Hundreds took part in United We Walk,
held as part of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day
commemoration in West Bloomfield.

Right: Drawings by community children depict children of
all colors in the halls of West Bloomfield High School.

Above: Participating it United We Walk are West
Bloomfield Green Elementary School students Klare Essad,
9; Ariele Flaggs, 8; Valerie Naffo, 9; and Serena Denha, 6

Right: Dr. Kathleen Murphy, Jessica Betel,
Al Rice and Wendy Werner, all of West Bloomfield,
join hands. as part of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day
commemoration at West Bloomfield High School.

fIN

1/21
2000

18

he weather may have been cold, but the mes-
sage was as clear as the sky, when students and
residents marched for peace and tolerance at
two area peace walks on Monday morning.
Following a candle-lighting ceremony Sunday night,
about 2,000 marchers met the next morning at West
Bloomfield High School to celebrate the lessons taught by
the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Cut down by an assassin's
bullet in 1968, he would have been 71 on Saturday, Jan. 15.
Last May, the high school sent letters to 28 other school
districts, inviting their participation in the peace walk, said
Steve Wasko, WBHS spokesperson. "We were looking for a
way to reach out to other schools in the shadow of the
Columbine [High School shooting] tragedy," he said.
At least two dozen schools sent representatives to the West
Bloomfield event.
About 1,200 people took part in Southfield's 15th annual
walk, according to Patricia Haynie, president of the city's
Martin Luther King Jr. holiday task force.
She said Southfield, the first city in the state to hold a
march, received an award from the National League of
Cities, in part because of the program.
"The diversity of the marchers were represented by all the
ethnic groups in the community," Haynie said. "We cele-
brate the works and ideals of Martin Luther King by the way
we relate to each other." ❑
.

— Harry Kirsbaum

