NMU recognizes MLK Day through service projects

MARQUETTE, Mich. (WLUC) - Northern Michigan University spent the day recognizing MLK’s legacy through service projects Monday afternoon.

Members of NMU’s Black Student Union (BSU) decorated cookies for the D.J. Jacobetti home for veterans. The project was just one at NMU’s Day of Service Monday in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.

The BSU’s president says dedicating time to honor King’s legacy is especially important at a school with a predominantly white student body.

“Martin Luther King dedicated his life to pushing us forward and helping us get to a certain spot to where we are comfortable being integrated into different communities and societies,” NMU BSU President Marlanaysia Rosser said. “Helping with that you get a different experience and perspectives.”

Attendees could participate in different projects like writing cards for Mill Creek Assisted Living or making fleece blankets for the Women’s Shelter. One student says she used the opportunity to learn about the day’s significance.

“I think it is really important to learn so I know how to be a better ally and learn what I can do to make campus life better for other individuals,” Freshman Emma Iles said.

Keynote speaker Angela Mohrmon says it is important during MLK Day to include everyone and use it as a teaching tool.

“Having these celebrations where we can all come together is going to bring that point of view to the forefront to those people who have not experienced it with the U.P. being predominately white,” Mohrmon said. “So having these celebrations and including everyone, showing them, this is what we go through and giving them a little piece of that might help them understand and build a better community.”

Rosser says there are still ways, we can strive to do better.

“A lot of our parents and grandparents were alive during that time so that is why it is very important for us knowing ‘we have done this and took these steps’ but a lot of times for black students and black people it is like two steps forward and five steps back. It is just important to keep moving forward and making sure you are doing things successfully,” Rosser said.

Both Rosser and Mohrmon say that while MLK Day is one day out of the year his legacy should be recognized all year long.