Community Engagement
MLK Dream Weekend Farewell Statement
10 years ago this year, Greenville County became the last county in the nation to officially recognize the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr holiday. The Greenville County community at large had worked together with unprecedented fervor and creativity to make sure this thriving, growing county would accurately reflect its cultural diversity and international appeal by making sure this holiday was a reality for this area. Nationally, the King holiday has become symbolic of diversity, justice, equality, and racial harmony.
Therefore, for the first county-recognized celebration of the holiday in 2006, a collaboration of pastors, and community and business leaders – was formed to organize a multi-event King Holiday weekend. The purpose of this weekend was to allow the Greenville community to come together again to celebrate our diversity, our cultural progressiveness, and to inspire younger generations to embrace the legacy of Dr. King, as well as recognize businesses and community influencers that reflect this legacy. To that end, the MLK Dream Weekend was founded.
At the first banquet at Embassy Suites in January 2006, our speaker, Dr. Bernice King (Daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr) said prophetically that “the last shall be first.” From that event and through every year since, the MLK Dream Weekend Executive Board and our sponsors, including our title sponsor, the Greenville Health System, have worked diligently all year round to present quality events with notable national speakers and substantive programs during the holiday weekend. Our crowning achievement is that along with our incredible scholarship sponsors, we have awarded nearly $400,000 in scholarships to a diverse pool of deserving students.
However, after 10 strong years of enjoying the incredible support of our community, 10 years of enjoying our collaborative successes, and 10 years of seeing our students eagerly embrace the scholarships that were proudly afforded them; the time has finally come to say “Thank You, Greenville, for 10 wonderful years!” We never envisioned that we would continue as long as we have, but due to increasing professional and personal responsibilities, it is with now time for us to step aside and allow new creativity and passion to take ownership of coordinating a community celebration to honor Dr. King.
We sincerely hope and pray that over the years, this event has somehow encouraged, inspired, or motivated you, your family, your students, or your organization to appreciate and admire Dr. King’s legacy, but more importantly, that you will make the personal commitment to live out his themes of diversity, unity, volunteerism, and justice daily for the rest of your life.
Thank you for all that you have done to make this event successful over the years. Without you, we could not have come this far.
Remember that a dream isn’t over when you wake up, it’s just beginning.
Thank you again!
MLK Dream Team
We, the Executive Board of MLK Dream Weekend, would like to express our deepest appreciation to you for your support of this initiative since our first effort in 2006. This event started on the first MLK Holiday weekend after the 2005 hard-fought and well-deserved approval from Greenville County Council to recognize the King Holiday. We have always sought to inspire the community to find meaningful, substantive ways to honor the life and legacy of Dr King by highlighting the King themes of unity, diversity, volunteerism, and by activating dreams and visions that change our future. However, with 2015 serving as the 10th year anniversary of MLK Dream Weekend and the passing of observance of the MLK holiday, it’s necessary that we become even more intentional to encourage other groups, individuals, or organizations to take the observance of the King legacy on King Holiday weekend to another level. We are eager to see this weekend grow in potential, in collaboration, and in impact upon Greenville as well as the upstate of SC. To that end, we encourage all interested parties to submit ideas, visions, and potential approaches to activating community-wide events to honor the King legacy by the completing the form below. Your submissions will help inform the future of MLK Dream Weekend.