City Year Marches for Unity: San Antonio’s 36th MLK Jr. March
“Everyone can be great because everyone can serve.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
City Year San Antonio was honored to walk alongside the San Antonio community at the annual MLK March on January 16, 2023. As the largest MLK March in the nation, over 400,000 people gathered to celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
MLK Day of Service
We were grateful to be able to share our message and mission at the pre-march celebration and ramped up the crowd with PT! The pre-march celebration allowed community members to express their appreciation for the day through song, dance, poetry, etc. District 2 Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez reminded us to keep MLK’s Dream alive through individual and collective action. He implored the crowd to consider how they can serve the community beyond MLK Day while highlighting the systemic and historical underdevelopment/disinvestment on the eastside of San Antonio.
After the pre-march celebration, the 2.8-mile walk from SAISD’s MLK Academy to Pittman-Sullivan Park gave us the opportunity to reflect on the power of community. City Year AmeriCorps members enjoyed mixing and mingling with other community organizations and seeing some of our students. We are grateful to be a part of such an important, connective, and powerful event.
Continuing the work in DreamWeek
Additionally, I had the pleasure of speaking on a DreamWeek San Antonio Panel. Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his legacy of civil rights reform, the DreamWeek mission is to lay the foundations of tolerance, equality, and diversity to create a platform where people across cultures and communities can discuss and exchange ideas, fostering enlightenment for the greater human experience. DreamWeek San Antonio hosts a series of events throughout the month of January to continue celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream and to spark new dreams and ideas in pursuit of cultivating community in a citywide summit. While attending a DreamWeek event, I was asked to be a panelist for a panel entitled “Race is a Lie”. The panel explored the nuances and impact of race in the United States from the multiple perspectives of myself and my fellow panelists. The panel granted me the opportunity to engage with my community and I am forever appreciative for this impactful experience!
Camryn joined City Year San Antonio (CYSA) as the Development Administrator in September 2022. She has dedicated herself to education and youth empowerment with a focus on equitable education for black and brown communities. Camryn is passionate about the power of community and carries this passion with her wherever she goes by cultivating authentic relationships.
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