Volunteers Darrius Graham, Jacquita Manning, Travon Williams and Jennifer Fullwood take turns signing out for their day of service. All had previously volunteered their time at the park, and said they would continue to do so in the future.

By Juliana A. Torres
Staff Writer

Martin Luther King Jr. Day was celebrated this week with a day of service in St. Cloud and an annual banquet in Kissimmee, as residents throughout Osceola County paused to reflect on the civil rights activists’ contributions to the country Monday.

About 167 volunteers showed up at Hopkins Park in St. Cloud early that morning to dedicate a day of service to cleaning up the surrounding neighborhoods. Jamie Paul, recreational supervisor for the city of St. Cloud and event organizer, said the turnout was their best so far.
	Mark and Telva Miller, center, accepted recognition for the success of their business, Miller’s Nursing Review, from Osceola Visionaries Chairwoman Anna Pinellas during the Martin Luther King Jr. banquet Monday night. Jackie Brockington, news anchor of Central Florida News 13, far right, emceed.

“It’s a lot of people that showed up at 7 o’clock in the morning on their day off, to give something in return,” Paul said. “We’re just going to take the entire city one neighborhood at a time and try to make a difference.”

The cleanup day was one of several during a kickoff week throughout Florida for the “Give a Day, Get a Disney Day” program, where volunteers can earn free days at a Disney park in exchange for their efforts in the community. Hopkins Park staff partnered with the Osceola County Council on Aging to bring more volunteers to the event.

“You can really see some of the differences in some of the places we were at,” said St. Cloud Councilman Jay Polachek, who spent the day with his family volunteering. “Residents came out. They were side by side with us, all day long. They worked their rear ends off."

Volunteers returned to Hopkins Park in St. Cloud Monday afternoon after a day of clearing woodland debris, picking up roadside trash and applying a fresh coat of paint to park equipment to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with community service.

The group of volunteers cleaned up trash along roadways, built a gazebo at Tracey Manor, trimmed trees, pressure washed homes and painted playground equipment and the basketball court at Hopkins Park. They even took on some impromptu projects, such as cleaning up yards of some elderly residents.

“It was fun. I loved it,” volunteer Jasmine Holmes, 17, said. “We put our differences to the side … coming together, laughing and planting change in the community.”

The city of Kissimmee also celebrated the holiday with its 10th annual MLK Memorial Family Day Saturday at Chambers Park Community Center.

The Osceola Visionaries held its 19th annual banquet Monday night to celebrate King’s legacy. The theme this year was “Without a Vision, the People Perish,” a reference to a verse in Proverbs. However, the speaker, Reggie McGill, said a sub-theme occurred to him after the earthquake struck Haiti last week.

“None of us in this room, I am certain, have had to live through what some of our brother and sisters are now being faced with,” McGill said. “The opportunity for this moment, in my opinion, is to share each other’s burdens.”

McGill, who currently works as a human relations director for the city of Orlando, said he was heartened as nurses, doctors, translators and citizens from around the world responded to the tragedy, lending aid, financial support and prayers to a country that they would never visit.

“We long and look forward to a nation filled with hope, but sometimes don’t realize that in so many ways, shapes and forms, hope is right before us,” he said. “I can feel the hope in this country through the actions of some as we seek to respond to a tragedy of a foreign land.”

The emcee for the event was Jackie Brockington, a news anchor for Central Florida News 13, who became the first African American newscaster in the Orlando region on prime time when she joined WESH 2 News in 1986. Osceola Visionaries Chairwoman Anna Pinellas said she often watches Brockington and felt honored when the news anchor personally responded to her request to emcee the banquet.

Brockington signs autographs for residents after the banquet.

“It was like a dream I had when I said to the Osceola Visionaries, ‘I’m going to get Jackie Brockington to preside,’” she told the audience “And they said, ‘Yeah, right.’”

The 19th annual banquet served, as always, as a chance to recognize and tell the stories of members of the community.

Telva and Mark Miller, owners of Miller’s Nursing Review, were honored first. The company, which helps aspiring nurses pass the exam needed to get their license, began after Telva Miller decided that she wanted to teach nursing, but couldn’t find a job because she had no teaching experience. Pinellas, her grandmother, told her that she should start her own business.

The encouragement eventually became the Kissimmee-based training program, which has a high success rate in helping nursing students, who have failed necessary exams three or more times already, earn their license.

The second honoree, Tyrone Burns, 20, had been a foster care child since age 4 until he was taken in by the Smith family. Peter Smith and Ann Marie Randolph-Smith had already adopted his two younger brothers six years beforehand, but struggled to reach the emotionally walled young Burns as he rebelled against their household.

It took a promise of unwavering support from Randolph-Smith to break the teenager’s walls. With his new family backing him, Burns began working at Disney, joined the football team, attended church and took night classes to catch up in school. He eventually graduated high school in 2008 and currently attends Universal Technical Institute, where he studies auto mechanics.

The young man thanked his brothers and the Smiths, who he called “Mom and Dad,” as he accepted the recognition, pausing with his head bowed as he was overwhelmed with emotion.

“If I didn’t have them, I don’t know where I’d be right now,” he said when he regained his voice. “I think I’d be locked up or dead.”

Brockington spoke for the audience in admitting how they were all touched by Tyrone’s story.

“Working in the news business, I get to read a lot of stories. And a lot of the stories are bad stories. And a lot of the stories are about our youth, especially our young black men,” she said. “And then when I hear stories like this, I know we have a future.”

Nelson Winbush, a long time teacher in Kissimmee, was honored for his commitment to generations of students. The retired gentleman taught at the black-only Kissimmee High School until countywide integration. He moved to Osceola High School, where he influenced many black and white students as a teacher and a coach. He later became an assistant principal.

Several people in the Civic Center events room, filled with influential members and leaders of the county, stood as past students of Winbush.

Deloris McMillon, who opened the Osceola Visionaries event, also gave a history of not only the local nonprofit, but of the federal holiday itself, calling the audience to remember Dr. King’s vision for peace.

“All Americans owe to his inspirational eloquence. Nonviolence is what he stood for. Equality is what he marched for. Justice is what he lived for,” McMillon said. “I ask each of us here tonight, what would Kissimmee be if all the citizens were just like Martin Luther King Jr.?”