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WINONA LAKE - A video made by fourth-graders at Lincoln Elementary School will take center stage Monday at the 13th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. luncheon.
Titled "Impressions of a Great American Leader: Remembering Dr. King," the luncheon is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Monday at Rodeheaver Auditorium in Winona Lake.
The Lincoln students who made the video, "Don't Laugh At Me," last year will present the program at the luncheon.
Based on Mark Wills' song by the same name, the video shows drawings, by fourth-grade students, that illustrate the feelings expressed in the song - acceptance of others, diversity and compassion.
Two fourth-grade classes listened to the song last year, said Lincoln teacher Mary Etienne, who was the adviser on the project, and each student drew a picture of a phrase in the song that touched them. The students then put the pictures on videotape and timed the tape and the song to correspond to the correct pictures.
"They did all of it themselves," Etienne said, stressing that the four students who did the majority of the project worked on it from October 1999 through February 2000.
Copies of the video have been sent to every school in Warsaw Community Schools to be used by the counselors, Etienne said, and the four students (now fifth-graders) who will present the video Monday have done so at other programs.
The video also won best of show at an international media fair in Denver, Colo., last fall, she said.
The Committee to Commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. chose the video for Monday's program because, said chairman Joe Banks, of its "impact on valuing people because they are persons. I think it really fits with Dr. King's ideals of dignity and worth."
But the video is only half the program. The other half will feature Dr. Frank Beard, pastor of Walnut Creek United Methodist Church, presenting some of King's speeches in what Banks called "a heart-stirring impersonation of Dr. King."
Usually scheduled for Center Lake Pavilion, the program moves to Rodeheaver Auditorium, Winona Lake, this year because of the growing number of attendees, Banks said.
"We outgrew Center Lake Pavilion," he said.
The program, which begins at 11:30 a.m., is free, but donations are appreciated.
Also included will be award and musical presentations.
The program is open to the public and is expected to conclude by 1 p.m.
