Screening, discussion, food drive highlight Cottey MLK day observance

Cottey College students, faculty, and staff will participate in several community service projects to celebrate and honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. All the events listed are free and open to the public.

On Saturday, Jan. 15, a special opening ceremony will be held in the Missouri Recital Hall at 10 a.m. The ceremony will serve as a collection point for a clothing drive for Moss House and will feature speakers Dr. Brenda Ross, associate dean of the faculty, and Darcie Callahan, transfer and career planning coordinator, as well as music from the Cottey College choirs. Afterwards, students will disperse to participate in various community service projects.

On Sunday, Jan. 16, Cottey will host a community cinema event in room 109 of the Rubie Burton Academic Center. At 1 p.m., the film "Taking Root" will be shown with a brief discussion following at 2 p.m., moderated by Dr. Sonia Cowen, executive director of the Institute for Women's Leadership and Social Responsibility. At 2:30 p.m., the film "A Village Called Versailles" will be screened, with a discussion at 3:30 p.m., led by Dr. Cowen.

"Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai" tells the story of Kenya's Green Belt Movement, a grassroots organization encouraging rural women and families to plant trees in community groups, and follows Maathai, the movement's founder and the first environmentalist and African woman to win the Nobel Prize.

"A Village Called Versailles" is the incredible story of this little-known, tight-knit community in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. When the storm devastated New Orleans in August 2005, Versailles residents rebuilt their neighborhood faster than most other damaged neighborhoods in the city, only to find themselves threatened by a new toxic landfill slated to open just two miles away.

On Wednesday, Jan. 19, fans attending the Comets basketball game against North Central Missouri College are asked to bring a nonperishable food item as part of a campus food drive for the local food bank. The game will tip off at 7 p.m. inside the friendly confines of Hinkhouse Center Gymnasium.

The Center for the Arts is on the northeast corner of Austin and Tower streets. The Rubie Burton Academic Center is on College Street, just south of the Blanche Skiff Ross Memorial Library. Parking for RBAC is located in the lot east of the building on Chestnut Street. Hinkhouse Center is on College Street across from RBAC. Parking for Hinkhouse is available west of the building in the lot accessible off of Tower Street.