From 9:17 a.m. to 10:07 a.m. on Friday, January 16, about 800 Maplewood Middle School students, teachers and administrators participated in the 15th Michele Turner Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Silent Peace March. Peggy Excell, owner of Lotus Petals on Baker Street, caught the action and shared her photos with us here (see gallery below).
Students marched from the school and through Maplewood Village carrying handmade signs with messages such as “I Have A Dream” and “We Will Stand Hand in Hand Together.”
As Excell reported, “Every year, this gets me. MMS’s silent peace walk to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. I love the impact that hundreds of silent children make. Peace.”
The march was started by Maplewood Middle School sixth grade teacher Richard Palmgren as a way to have students reflect upon the life and work of King — “a man who was committed to fighting nonviolently for equality and peace.” Palmgren told The Village Green, “Initiated in January 2001, the MLK Silent Peace March is designed to both replicate the marches for equality of the 1960s and to make a profound statement that the fight for equality is still not over. The silence of 800 middle schoolers marching through Maplewood Village makes a very ‘loud’ statement about Dr. King’s dream of unity and equality.”
