Y Minority Achievers honor Martin Luther King Jr., other civil rights pioneers (with video)

Maribeth Joeright/MJoeright@News-Herald.com

Becky Young of Painesville helps her son Walker, 6, with his pancakes during a breakfast celebrating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday at the Central YMCA in Painesville.

Maribeth Joeright/MJoeright@News-Herald.com

Jackie Fisher D'Antonio of Painesville Township and her children, Noel, 11, and Mary, 4, look at a display of men and woman who were instrumental in the Civil Rights Movement during a breakfast celebrating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday at the Central YMCA in Painesville.

With Monday being Martin Luther King Jr. Day, student members of the Y Minority Achievers spoke their hearts and minds to celebrate the profound impact that King and several others had on their lives.

A handful of students researched these prominent people in history and then delivered a speech telling the story of their lives, as well as how it related to their own experiences.

Tori Burclay shared the story of Ruby Nell Bridges, who was the first black child to attend a white-only elementary school in the south.

"Through the window I saw white parents pointing at us and yelling, then rushing the children out of the school ... somebody had a black doll in a coffin that scared me more than the nasty things people screamed at us," she said as she described Bridges' experience. "There were a few white families who braved the protest and sent their children to school, but they weren't in my class so I didn't see them."

Burclay told the room that she used to cry and beg her parents to let her transfer out of Mentor High School because she was one of only a small percentage of minority students in the school.

But most importantly, she has learned through her difficult experiences and come out stronger and better for it, she said.

Other students spoke of Michelle Obama, Rosa Parks and others.

Marva Quiqley volunteers as an advisor for the youth program at the YMCA Central Branch in Painesville, and says she really sees it as an opportunity to make a difference.

"I really like being involved in the program and want to make an impact on kids' lives and I think doing MLK programs and things like this brings awareness to the struggles that went on during the civil rights movement and also just awareness of things that people have overcome in the past," she said. "There's a lot of things that we don't know, even myself as an adult, didn't know that went on ... this type of program gives everybody a chance to learn and get information that we didn't have. I'm very glad that it's an opportunity for these young people to learn but to also teach other people and other generations what they've learned."

The group focuses primarily on preparing minority students for college and ensuring that they do well in school, said Donna Link, a coordinator of the program.

They also do special events like the Martin Luther King Jr. celebration, and other community-based, education or service projects, Link said.

Students from high schools in several districts participate in the minority program.

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