When any community grows at the rate that Fuquay-Varina is growing, it is natural for the demographics to shift a bit – and for traditions that have been developing for years to gain a new foothold with new generations of residents.
One of those traditions is Fuquay-Varina’s Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration, held in January every year. Never heard of it? Well, that’s about to change!
Back in 2003, Mayor John Byrne and local resident Romie Burt, Jr. attended a black history celebration in Dunn. On the way back, they discussed the fact that Fuquay-Varina needed to create a celebratory event of some kind for local residents to call their own. Upon their return to town, they made some strategic phone calls and pulled together a small group of people who worked together to create the first Martin Luther King Jr. celebration and march.
The first commemorative march and program took place in January 2003 with guest speaker Coast Guard Commander Stephen Rochon. The program was a retelling of the Pea Island Incident and the effect its legacy has had in our state. Pea Island was the only African-American Coast Guard Station in the state, and was instrumental in saving the lives of 10 crew members on a merchant vessel in 1896. Stephan Rochon went on to serve in President Obama’s administration years later.
That first event consisted of a march and a breakfast with a program – a format that has stayed pretty much the same over the years. Different speakers, different musical performances, and different venues have made each year’s event a little unique, but the overall experience has remained the same. All the celebrations have started and stopped at various churches around town, and wherever facility design made it possible, the program portion of the event was held in the sanctuary of each venue instead of being part of the breakfast.
After a couple of years of organizing programs, the group decided to become official and successfully filed for nonprofit status with the IRS. Fourteen local residents that had helped with the first couple of celebration events became members of the group’s first board of directors. That inaugural group included Romie Burt, Jr., Mayor John Byrne, Helen Adams, Rev. Dr. Marvin Connelly, Jr., Rev. Samuel Cotton, Ruby Haynes, attorney Robert Griffin, Martha Moore, Marion Tucker, Evelyn Wicker, Phyllis McCleod, Elijah Booker and Mamie Richardson.
The Cultural Arts Society of Fuquay-Varina (CASF-V), as they chose to be called, continues to organize each year’s event based on the themes that are prevalent in celebrations at the national and state level. Each year the theme is different, and touches on some facet of peace and understanding and respect for diversity within the community. The focus of their work has been and continues to be appreciating and celebrating cultural diversity in Fuquay-Varina. Speakers of note have been State Supreme Court Justice Patricia Timmons-Goodson, and Wake County Commissioner Jessica Holmes.
The Society has had a very limited budget over the last 15 years, relying on the support of local churches, businesses, and personal contributions to provide food for their breakfasts and donations to purchase supplies and provide honorariums for the speakers. Food Lion in Lillington provided all the food for the first few events and they were able to organize a real breakfast with hot food. In more recent years, the group has had to revert to more of a continental breakfast, but they still rely heavily on donations. “We have had to beg, borrow, and contribute personal funds to offer these programs every year,” shares event co-chair Marion Tucker. Significant emphasis on fundraising has been added in the past year, and plans are in the works for a large, annual fundraiser to support the efforts of the MLK Celebration moving forward.
Today, only three of the original committee members are still on the board of directors. Mayor Byrne and Romie Burt are now ex-officio members of the Society, but they still participate every year. Age and time have a way of changing the face of organizations. But new volunteers and board members have joined the Society, bringing additional energy to the event and helping transform it into one that the entire community can enjoy and get involved with.
Tucker is excited about some of the new features the event will offer this year. First and foremost is her co-chair, Genel Webb, and several other newer members of the group including Todd Truffin and Pinkie Strother. “The guard is changing,” Tucker smiles. “We are starting to see fresh energy from newer members who have great ideas and new contacts in the community.”
Webb, a local business owner, was looking for a way to reconnect with her community and get involved after losing her husband suddenly a few years back. “I had been to the event many times,” she explains. “It seemed like a natural progression for me to expand on something I already supported and hopefully bring added value to the established traditions.”
Some of the new ideas that have been put into motion this year are building a website and a Facebook page for better marketing of CASF-V and the event. “We’re really hoping to reach a much wider segment of the community,” Genel explains. “We really want the whole town to embrace this event and the Society’s vision of promoting unity and celebrating the diversity that grows with every new resident who moves here.”
Other changes this year include the creation of a special ecumenical choir that will convene just for the event, an essay contest for local middle and high school students, posting of colors by the Fuquay-Varina Police Department, and new marketing materials designed by FVHS students.
The first annual MLK Essay Contest is a new feature of the Celebration event, and is open to middle and high school students in the greater SW Wake area. The essay question asks students to explain what Reverend Dr. King meant by “a beautiful symphony of brotherhood” in his “I Have a Dream” speech in 300-350 words. Submissions must be emailed by December 7 to centerpeacepub@aol.com. For more information about this contest, including specific essay requirements, visit www.casf-v.org or contact Genel Webb at (919) 451-1985.
For the first time since the inception of this program, the Fuquay-Varina Police Department will be posting colors at the beginning of the program. Police Chief Laura Fahnestock and her staff have spent a great deal of time reaching out to the African American and Hispanic communities in town since she joined the department, and the Cultural Arts Society is excited to have the police department participating in the march again this year.
The brand new MLK marketing flyer was created by students at Fuquay-Varina High School, in a collaboration between the Society and the FVHS Digital Media Department. The project was spearheaded by teacher Kelsey Furse. Students in her class were assigned the flyer as a project and with the help of other faculty as judges, she was able to get the submissions narrowed down to five for the Society to consider. “The material that the students created was so impressive!” Webb says. “It was hard to choose, but we love the one we picked. It truly showcases what our event is trying to accomplish.” Students Andres Jordan and Pablo Ojeda-Cruz created the winning flyer and the Society is excited about the possibility of making this project an annual collaboration with the high school.
The annual Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration will be celebrating its 15th year on January 21, 2019 – an incredible track record for a town our size. The speaker for the 2019 event will be Associate Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court Cheri Beasley.
The Fuquay-Varina Cultural Arts Society is looking for “super volunteers” to help with the event, residents to join them for the event itself, and choir members for the new MLK Ecumenical Community Choir that will pull people from all walks of life to sing inspirational music. For more information about getting involved in the choir, contact Genel Webb at (919) 451-1985. For more information about getting involved with the Fuquay-Varina Cultural Arts Society or this event in other ways, call Chairperson Dr. Evelyn Wicker (919) 306-4157 or attend an upcoming meeting at the Fuquay-Varina Community Center.
