 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
His day, shared by all
By BABITA PERSAUD and MELANIE AVE TAMPA -- While many at Monday's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. parade donned Buccaneer pewter and red, Louise Dennard, 65, wore a T-shirt with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. airbrushed on the front. "It is his day," she said. MLK day was marked with parades in Tampa and St. Petersburg and a countywide volunteer effort that had high school students picking up trash at city parks. "It is a beautiful day to honor a great man," exclaimed Karen Peoples, 41, at the Tampa parade. Thousands came out for the Sixth Annual MLK parade, which started at noon at Blake High School, wound around the West Riverfront neighborhood, passed the steps of the Beulah Baptist Church and ended a mile and a half away at Pepin Rood Stadium at the University of Tampa. "The day means a lot to me," said Ruth McNair, whose yellow house was on the parade route. "I remember when I had to take the children to the doctor's and the receptionist asked me to come through the back door. I remember when there were signs about the water fountains: "white' and "colored.' It hurt." Music helped keep spirits high at Tampa's annual parade honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Middleton High School's Marching Tigers had the crowd swinging their hips with Papa Was A Rolling Stone. Tampa Bay Tech's marching band had paradegoers grooving to Dancing Queen. Trombone player Alex Antongiorgi, 18, with the fighting Tampa Bay Tech Titans, is something of a parade pro, having done both Gasparilla day and night parades. But the MLK parade -- although smaller -- was special, he said. For him, it came with an added meaning. "The day is about not letting anyone stop you with what you want to do," Antongiorgi said. "It's about keeping a dream," said band mate Tiffany Vega, a trumpet player. Monday marked Middleton High School's first time in the parade. Principal Henry Washington recalled his graduation from Middleton more than a generation ago, noting that there was no MLK parade in Tampa then. Monday, the marching corps consisted of alumni and youngsters, including Willie Hooper, 14, whose trombone was nearly as big as he is. MLK day means "everything," he said. Among the other marchers at Monday's parade were members of the Greater Bethel Missionary Baptist Church, a black nurses organization featuring white-uniformed marchers and a local boxing gym for kids, which constructed a boxing ring for a float. A local African-American motorcycle club, the Black Change, revved their Harleys along the route and tossed out beads and candy. The Tampa Bay Buffalo Society, Woods & Wanton chapter, came on horseback. The Hillsborough Caribbean Club danced the length of the parade route as reggae music blasted from loudspeakers. While the parade heated up downtown, dozens of volunteers spent the holiday cleaning up Hillsborough County parks. The effort was part of a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. day of service organized by the Mayor's Beautification Program and the city of Tampa's parks department. The task was sometimes taxing. At Al Lopez Park off Himes Avenue, about two dozen students from Jefferson, Brandon and Chamberlain high schools picked up trash and removed overgrown foliage, which included the invasive, nonnative Brazilian pepper trees. "We had no idea it was going to be so hard," said Ashley Debien, 16, a Jefferson High student who volunteered through the school's National Honor Society. Classmate Rafael Bastos, 16, echoed her sentiments but said he could think of no better way to spend MLK day. "Instead of sleeping, we came out here to help," Bastos said. "It feels kind of good."
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the Times |
