MLK Day unity event switches to parade route

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This year’s Martin Luther King Day celebration in Mineola will look a little different.

To help with COVID-19 protocols, the annual unity march will transition to a unity parade and outdoor ceremony.

Vehicles will line up at 10 a.m. Monday, Jan. 18 similar to the recent parade routes along U.S. Hwy. 80 East near Graham Street and head west, but instead turning north on Newsom St. and proceeding to the Mineola Civic Center, to park around the circle, where participants will remain in their vehicles.

An outdoor PA system will be set up, and the event will also be broadcast live on KMOO radio 99.9 and live-streamed on Facebook through Mineola ISD.

Mayor Kevin White will give the welcome followed by the invocation by Pastor Randy Larpenteur of the Church of the Nazarene.

The Mineola High School band will perform followed by a youth speaker, words of encouragement by Pastor Demethrius Boyd with St. Paul Missionary Baptist and music by the St. Paul Music Ministry. Pastor David Bethel with the New Life Pentecostal Church will give the benediction.

Rather than a meal served, the event will include hot dogs to go, sponsored by the Mineola Community Bank.

The event is sponsored by the Mineola Ministerial Alliance in cooperation with the city of Mineola and Mineola Civic Center.

On Saturday, Jan. 16 Jarvis Christian College, near Hawkins, will host a virtual MLK unity prayer service at 10 a.m. For more information contact the Office of Institutional Advancement and Development at 903-730-4890 ext. 3003.