MLK event prompts question: ‘What are you doing for others?’

By Willow Symonds
Staff Writer

Several people presented in WCC’s MLK Day event on Thursday, Jan 12, but the Diversity & Inclusion Committee appointed one keynote speaker: Washtenaw County Commissioner of District 4, Caroline Sanders. Eric Reed, dean of student access, introduced Sanders to the audience as a “dedicated member of our community.”

Sanders began her speech by thanking the Diversity & Inclusion Comittee’s coordinator, Christina Do, for organizing the event. Though the two had never met in person, according to Sanders, she still waved to Do in the audience.

As an only child, Sanders grew up “selfish,” in her own words. “I always wanted my way but to never do things alone,” she told the audience. When she became a single parent, however, she had to learn how to maneuver financially and personally, looking out not just for herself but also her child.

“I’m not the kind of person who likes to give up my time for things,” Sanders said. “But the more you step outside of your comfort zone or accept opportunities, you start to feel what it means to be unselfish – which for the most part, means ‘free.’ Nobody’s paying you. … You’re not getting anything but gratification.”

One thing Sanders learned about herself when volunteering at organizations like the YMCA is that she loves “voluntelling.” This word, meaning “volunteering someone else to do something instead of doing it yourself,” brought good-natured laughs from the audience.

She explained that, ironically, someone else voluntelled her to run for the County Commissioner. While she never could have pictured herself holding this position as a still-learning single parent, she now “wouldn’t trade it” because she gets to help “a multitude of people with one responsibility.”

“Voluntell your friends, family, coworkers to just give a bit of themselves and their time to help others,” Sanders advised near the end of her speech. “What if someone like Martin Luther King Jr. said, ‘I don’t have time’? We would not have this national holiday – we would not be gathered here today.”

While stepping away from the podium, Sanders received cheers and applause. Eric Reed then took her place and initiated another round of applause for her, then thanked her for speaking today.

Rachel Barsch, club supervisor of student activities, took the podium and initiated the Equity in Action award ceremony, where different WCC employees handed each winner an angular glass sculpture. They saved the last awards for Director of Career Success, Cheryl Harvey, and Coordinator of Student Equity & Inclusion, Christina Do.

The event took place in the Student Center’s second floor, being the first in-person MLK Day event since the COVID-19 pandemic. Dozens of people sat and stood in attendance. They listened to the speeches, watched the award ceremony, and sang along with WCC alumni Kenyatta Rashon, the live music’s vocalist.

Before the speeches, Rashon shared her love of the Morris J. Lawrence building, a place she gravitated toward when she was a student. She then sang with instrumental accompaniment. Once the award ceremony concluded, with Christina Do being the last speaker, Rashon and the band performed again for the MLK Day event’s last half hour.

Every MLK Day event at WCC is inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1960 quote, “Our ultimate end must be the creation of the beloved community.” The event’s theme this year followed another quote of his: “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’”

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