AmeriCorps Revisit Dr. King’s Speech

For this year’s MLK Day Parade in Apopka, Florida, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was portrayed by Anthony King (no relation), a second year member of Notre Dame Mission Volunteers AmeriCorps (NDMVA). The NDMVA members planned a theme and designed a float to represent the Apopka service site and hoped to not just impress the judges but to also bring awareness about the work the AmeriCorps members do in Central Florida for immigrant and working poor communities. From this year’s float, Anthony waved to onlookers, standing inside a representation of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., where Dr. King gave his historic “I Have a Dream Speech” in 1963. Some NDMVA waved signs to onlookers from the float, while others elected to walk behind the float. The parade concluded at the John Bridges Center where over a dozen AmeriCorps members, still singing, laughing, and dancing with friends, went home to enjoy the rest of the holiday.