01/21/2025
Dr. Martin Luther King Day 2025 at Gateway 180 was everything that I prayed for! Our community came together and played games, heard speeches from young people, ate and showed love to the residents. On a day where so much was happening around the world, we were in the right place at the right time! OAN shout out to the adults who showed no mercy to the kids in the GIANT UNO game. I mean cards were slapping and there was sooooo much trash talking. At one point I even leaned in and told an adult to take it easy on an 8 year old who was still learning. I gave a few reasons why I felt like it was the right thing to do. He politely pointed to the right and said SORRY is over there! 😂 By the time the day was over, the little girl was talking trash back to him and winning. This definitely felt like we were one BIG FAMILY where race, gender, and socioeconomics did not matter! My highlight was being able to tell the story of my student who I taught in 5th grade and who brought her daughter to volunteer with the Little Legacies. Her class was HORRIBLE and they had previously made their teacher quit. I arrived in January and they were accustomed to doing what they wanted to do. I had to break the destructive patterns and traditions that they were used to. They didn't like me and I didn't like them. Many were angry and coming from homes where poverty was rampant. They called me Joe Clark. I was very young then and every day I went there with the goal of teaching, mentoring, and changing lives. Yesterday she told me and everyone at the event how my expectations of her and her classmates changed their lives. This is what living the DREAM of Dr. King looks like in action! Thank you to everyone who came, Nike, Mother's on Wheels, Gateway 180 and God!
