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Geneva Marks Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Kelly Walker

Despite temperatures in the teens and a wind chill dipping into the single digits, a large crowd gathered at the Public Safety Building at 9:30 Monday morning. Their route took the marchers through downtown Geneva and to Trinity Episcopal Church on South Main Street.

  The crowd swelled inside the church for the formal memorial service, which included a variety of community leaders and leaders of local religious communities including the Reverend Donald Golden of Mt. Olive Missionary Baptist Church and the president of the local Martin Luther King committee. The Reverend Golden’s remarks invoked the theme of this year’s service.

"Marching together for a change," Golden said. "When you're out their by yourself, it's hard to effectuate change. Am I right about that? But, when you are marching together it's easy to make change happen."

The service also included a proclamation from the office of the Mayor as well as a keynote speech from Dr. Cecilia Griffin Golden, Executive Director of Education for Hillside Children’s Center of the Hillside Family of Agencies. The MLK Memorial Choir performed throughout before the service adjourned for a communal lunch.

Kelly Walker started his public radio career at WBAA in West Lafayette, Indiana in 1985 and has spent some time in just about every role public broadcasting has to offer. He has spent substantive time in programming and development at KWMU in St. Louis, WFIU in Bloomington, Indiana, and Troy Public Radio in Alabama before his arrival in Geneva, New York. In addition, his work has been heard on many other public radio stations as well as NPR. Kelly also produces The Sundilla Radio Hour, which airs Sundays at 1 p.m. on Finger Lakes Public Radio and is distributed to public radio stations all over the country through PRX.