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October 11, 2007
Northampton, MA: A peace march meant to make King proud
A peace march meant to make King proud
BY LAURIE LOISEL STAFF WRITER
Daily Hampshire Gazette, October 11, 2007
NORTHAMPTON - Like a lot of kids, Wyatt Marshall didn't have an easy time learning to read. But last year, in fourth grade, he picked up a book about Martin Luther King, and something clicked.
His teachers and parents knew a good thing when they saw one, so they kept giving him book after book about King, Rosa Parks and the civil rights movement.
"That's how he learned to read," said his mother, Kitty Marshall. "The subject was so interesting to him."
By the time Wyatt was entering fifth grade (this year) at the Solomon Schechter Day School of the Pioneer Valley on Prospect Street, according to his mother, he had taken the lessons of Martin Luther King to heart.
"I wanted to make him proud," said Wyatt, a soft-spoken 10-year-old who wears his hair pulled back in a ponytail.
Kitty talked with him about what that might be, and he settled on some sort of march. When she asked him what the cause would be, he knew right away.
"He said, 'well, peace, of course,'" Kitty Marshall said. "He just got so tired, we all get tired, of listening to the news, I guess."
Wyatt put it this way: "I just feel it," he said. "I just really want to have peace."
Hard work for a good cause
So Wyatt got busy planning the march in September, first getting a permit (easier said than done), and then making fliers and distributing them around town.
He left them at schools and in stores, including some where shopkeepers agreed to put them in every customer's bag. He told kids on his soccer team, and others at school.
In the end, about 40 children ("and their grown-ups," said Kitty Marshall) turned out for the march up and down the sidewalks on Main Street Saturday. The Marshall family considered that a resounding success.
"He got a lot of people behind him, I think because he did it himself," said Kitty.
Wyatt, who walked holding a banner that read "Kid's March for Peace," said his only regret was that they didn't end up singing John Lennon's "Imagine" on the steps of City Hall, as he'd hoped. But there's always next year, because he said he wants to organize it again.
No doubt, King would be proud.
Laurie Loisel can be reached at lloisel@gazettenet.com.
Posted by lois at October 11, 2007 10:50 AM