Healing Wounds through Community
Lafayette Youth to Host 16th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration
On Monday, Jan. 18, 2021, community members will pay tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the City of Lafayette’s 16th annual Martin Luther King Jr. March for Peace and Celebration. Planned in conjunction with the Federal King Holiday and modified to comply with public health guidelines, the event will feature a car parade and drive-in celebration.
Free and family friendly, Lafayette’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration will commence with a car parade with departure from the Flatirons Community Church parking lot on the northwest corner of South Public Road and South Boulder Road at 10am. Community members are encouraged to decorate their cars and convene between 9:45-9:55am. The parade will travel north on Public Road, west on Baseline Road, south on Caria Drive and Centaur Village Drive, ultimately concluding at Centaurus High School (10300 South Boulder Road), where a “drive-in” program will begin at approximately 10:30am.
The drive-in program featuring live entertainment, speeches, and musical performances, will be accessible via FM radio. Event t-shirts and craft kits will be distributed to community members at the beginning of the program (while supplies last). The event will conclude approximately at noon.
Discussing the event, Lassie Moore, Lafayette Youth Advisory Committee Co-Chair shared, “The Commission unanimously agreed Lafayette’s Martin Luther King Jr. event needed to be reformatted [to meet social distancing requirements] given our nation’s challenges and our need to come together. We will be urging community members to, in the words of Dr. King, ‘learn to live together as brothers’ to heal wounds and get closer to Dr. King’s beloved community.”
Lafayette City Council Member and Liaison to the Lafayette Youth Advisory Commission (LYAC) JD Mangat commented, “I am so grateful to members of LYAC and the Centaurus High School Student Council, who are planning this year’s event. Their creativity, compassion, and persistence are a great tribute to MLK.”
In compliance with public health regulations, community members will be required to be in their vehicles for the duration of the program. Restroom and concessions access will not be available. Click on this link to RSVP.
The Lafayette Youth Advisory Commission has historically planned the community’s Martin Luther King Jr. celebration, which has emerged as the largest MLK event in Boulder County. This year, LYAC is joined by members of the Centaurus High School Student Council; the program is supported the Lafayette Police Department and Lafayette Parks, Recreation and Open Space. The Lafayette Youth Advisory Committee engages Lafayette youth in outreach, advisory, and educational opportunities through solutions-based discourse and action in their community. In addition, the Committee advises the City Council on youth related issues and other relevant topics, while fostering youth leadership and civic participation in the greater community. Representing six local middle and high schools, 24 students currently comprise the Lafayette Youth Advisory Commission.
