Danville High School senior Clara Graham has been named winner of the $4,000 scholarship, awarded by the Martin Luther King Celebration Committee during Monday’s community wide celebration for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr at St. James United Methodist Church. Graham is planning to major in Urban and Sustainable Agriculture, with the goal of helping provide community gardens in urban areas, leading to more fresh and nutritional foods in the fight against food desert situations. Graham read her essay for the audience at St James, and talked afterwards about the motivation for her career goal in urban farming.
AUDIO: My freshman year of high school I met a teacher named Ms. Walker, and she is an incredible woman. She taught a lot of environmental science and botony classes and things like that. She really just sparked my interest in sustainability and environmentalism.
Graham will be attending Illinois State University this coming fall.
From Monday’s Community Wide Celebration for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr at St James United Methodist Church: (L to R) Danville mayor Rickey Williams, Jr speaks, the MLK Ensemble performs, Clara Graham receives a hug after reading her scholarship essay, Carolyn Dupree solos on “Amazing Grace,” Presiding Bishop E. Anne Henning Byfield delivers her address.
Also speaking at Monday’s community wide celebration, Danville’s Mayor Rickey Williams, Junior. He spoke about overcoming challenges, and what Danville has gone through the last couple of years with all of the pandemic hurdles. The mayor stated, “When you can’t figure it out, God can.” And that goes for Danville’s challenges, and society as a whole.
AUDIO: We’ve had a lot to overcome, and although we’ve come a long way we still have a long way to to. As she said, injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere. So we’ve got to do our best to really consider others beyond ourselves and serve our fellow man.
And by “she,” the mayor was referring to the main speaker at the King Day community wide celebration: Presiding Bishop E. Anne Henning Byfield, bishop of the 13th Episcopal District and president of the Councils of Bishops of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Byfield came from Nashville to speak, and emphasized the need to sacrifice and step up and go against the grain to fight injustice. And if you get knocked down or lose some supporters along the way, simply get back up again.
