Dream Team seeks different approach

Dr. King's dream 'will be alive and well' next year, an event planner says.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Next year's Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration in Trumbull County will likely assume a format that differs from the all-day series of events held for the last 13 years, one of the event coordinators said.
"Dr. King's dream will be alive and well" in the county, said Robert L. Faulkner Sr., co-founder and co-chairman of the Trumbull County Martin Luther King Jr. Dream Team, the nonprofit corporation that coordinates the day's programs here.
"After 13 years, we just believe we need to do something different," he said, noting the high cost of an all-day series of events and the existence of other events that weekend that compete for the same audience.
The Dream Team will explore focusing on a morning program and entering into a partnership with the Kent State University Trumbull Campus to reach college students next year, he said.
It also is planning to assemble suitcases of teaching materials related to the slain civil rights leader for different ages of school children, he added. Dream Team leaders will meet next month to begin planning next year's events, Faulkner said.
This year's event
This year's events included a breakfast and workshops at Warren G. Harding High School, followed by an evening program at W.D. Packard Music Hall, and featured Lenworth Gunther, professor of history and director of the Africana Center at Essex County, N.J., College, as the keynote speaker.
The daylong program draws the same audience as a Saturday program sponsored by the A. Phillip Randolph Institute and a church-sponsored Sunday event during the weekend before Martin Luther King Day, Faulkner said.
The Dream Team is debt-free, but it incurred "a few thousand" dollars in costs for this year's all-day event, including the honorarium and travel and lodging expenses for the out-of-town speaker and hall rental fees, Faulkner continued. Individuals and corporations have donated money to support the events each year, he added.
Admission has been free to all of the events except the breakfast, and the program has included a free post-workshop box lunch for the children, he added. The Dream Team is considering scaling down the program next year to reduce some of the event costs, Faulkner said.
"Our whole purpose has always been to try to unify the community in what Dr. King stood for, his values, and particularly try to make sure our children don't forget what it's all about," Faulkner said of the national holiday. "It's not a day off, but really a day on to commemorate and celebrate."
milliken@vindy.com