19/01/2026
Burlington Event Honors Martin Luther King Jr. Through Service.
In a celebration that bridged continents and causes, community members gathered on January 17 at the Academy of Creative Arts in Burlington to honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. through action, collaboration, and compassion.
The event was jointly organized by the Foundation of Indian Americans – New England (FIA) and the Jatan Foundation of Inclusion, in partnership with RestoringVision , the global nonprofit dedicated to providing vision care for those in need.
Alongside tributes to King’s message of equality and peace, the event featured the distribution of reading glasses to local residents who lacked access to affordable vision care.Dr. King’s lifelong advocacy for nonviolent resistance drew inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi’s Satyagraha movement, and that influence was deeply felt at the gathering. Organizers described the initiative as a reflection of the same philosophy — transforming compassion into practical service.
“This event reminds us that when the vision is global and love in action is local, every place becomes another home,” said one member of the organizing team.
Mr. Abhishek Singh, chairman of FIA New England, and Mr. Sanjay Gokhale, Sanjay Gokhale the organization’s vice president, led a team of board members and volunteers in coordinating the event, which also included free health screenings for participants. The volunteers, many of them young students, received hands-on training to dispense glasses, embodying a new generation of community service leaders.
The Jatan Foundation of Inclusionserves as the implementing partner for RestoringVision’s ambitious initiative to distribute 500,000 reading glasses in the Indian state of Maharashtra — a project aimed at expanding vision access across underserved regions.Organizers described the program’s Burlington event as a “highlight moment” in blending service with remembrance, connecting Dr. King’s message of justice with Gandhi’s global legacy of service to humanity.
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Krupa Covert Archana Zende
Ravindra Zende
