Bates Technical College’s Martin Luther King Jr. celebration includes event and community march

TACOMA, Wash. – Bates Technical College will honor and celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with two community events. On Monday, Jan. 18, the public is invited to the annual March for MLK. Marchers will walk from the Downtown Campus to the City of Tacoma’s Martin Luther King Jr. event at the Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center.

Marchers meet at 8:30 a.m. for refreshments at the Downtown Campus cafeteria on 11th Street and Yakima Avenue. At 9 a.m., the group begins marching to city’s celebration. Following the city’s event, a shuttle will return marchers to the Downtown Campus.

The celebration continues on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Downtown Campus Clyde Hupp Board Room, when Erin Jones will serve as keynote speaker at the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration: Footsteps Forward.

Jones is the Tacoma School District’s director of Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID). The former director of equity and achievement at the Federal Way School District, Jones has been involved in education for 24 years, teaching and serving in diverse communities. She received recognition from the White House as a “Champion of Change” in 2013, and was the state’s Milken Educator of the Year in 2008.

For more information about the celebration and the march, please call 253.680.7000, or go to www.bates.ctc.edu.