Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration Hosted By OCTC

Owensboro, KY (01/11/2022) — Owensboro Community and Technical College (OCTC) will be hosting an in person and remote "Unity in the Community" event in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. day on Monday, January 17, 2022. The event will be split into two parts to allow for the outdoor, in person procession and after a brief break, a virtual panel discussion and musical performances via Facebook live. Beginning at 9 a.m. the in person event will begin with the traditional procession. This year the march will begin at Daviess County High School and conclude at OCTC's Main Campus at 4800 New Hartford Road, participants will meet at 8:45am at DCHS in the parking lot off of Southeastern Parkway and across from the central office.

Following the march there will be a brief break in activities, so interested participants can return home and join in part two of the event via Facebook live at Facebook.com/OwensboroCTC. The musical performances feature the Cravens Chorus, singing "Give Us Hope" by Jim Popoulis and the Kentucky Wesleyan College Gospel Choir performing "Lift Every Voice and Sing" by James Weldon Johnson, J. Rosanobd Johnson.

The panel discussion features Dr. Eunice Taylor, A United States Air Force Officer and professional nurse. Eunice served as a Chief Nurse & chief flight nurse consultant to senior medical officers and the director of the United States Air Force Air Mobility Command. Brionna Greer, Chief Executive Officer, founder of Breaking The Cycle 2.0, whose mission is to conduct public education, community empowerment, and other charitable activities toward the goal of helping youth break cycles of gun violence and pursue higher education. Naheed S. Murtaza is a graduate of Loyola University Chicago and a licensed Illinois attorney. Since moving to Owensboro 19 years ago, Ms. Murtaza has worked with the local Owensboro community to improve the lives of marginalized groups, advance community education, and advocate for empowerment of socially disempowered in Owensboro and Daviess County. Susan Montalvo-Gesser, Director of Catholic Charities for the Diocese of Owensboro where she runs programming to address the social concerns of the Church, including Immigration Services and Disaster Relief Services.

Sharmy Davis, OCTC's Director of Diversity will serve as the moderator. The questions for the panelists will be submitted by students from Daviess County and Owensboro high schools.

This community MLK day event is held annually and is a collaborative partnership of Owensboro Human Relations Commission and the Owensboro-Daviess County Education Community.

For more information please contact Sharmy.Davis@kctcs.edu.

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Owensboro Community & Technical College is one of the sixteen community and technical colleges that make up the Kentucky Community & Technical College System. OCTC serves the KY counties of Daviess, Hancock, Ohio and McLean. OCTC has three campuses in Daviess County and a Center and Annex in Hancock County. OCTC strives to serve the communities in the service area by providing associate degree education for transfer, state of the art technical education for students focusing on entering the workforce, customized business and industry solutions through the Workforce Solutions division, and adult education and business and industry testing through the SkillTrain unit.

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The Kentucky Community and Technical College System is the Commonwealth's largest postsecondary institution with 16 colleges and more than 70 campuses. We also are Kentucky's largest provider of workforce training and online education. Through partnerships with business and industry, we align our programs to meet the needs of local employers. We help students fulfill their dreams of creating a better life through programs that lead directly to jobs or help them transfer to one of our four-year partners.

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