It was a day for honoring the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr. and for celebrating the young people of Wareham following in his footsteps.

Nearly 200 people watched as nine students - representing each Wareham school, Bristol County Agricultural High School, Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical School, as well as a member of the Boys & Girls Club and Gleason Family YMCA - were awarded Dr. Martin Luther King Youth Spirit awards for exemplifying the principles embodied by the slain civil-rights leader.

“[These are] students who have overcome great challenges in their lives who did not give up and who persevered,” said Wareham Public Schools Director of Operations/Finance Ana Miranda, who presented the awards.

The celebration’s theme  was “I Have a Dream... I Can Achieve It”

Keynote speaker Dr. Dana Mohler-Faria, President of Bridgewater State College president and Wareham native, embodied this theme and spoke of his modest upbringing in a Cape Verdean family. His parents “didn’t make it to high school,” he said. His mother worked in the cranberry bogs and his father in construction.
Mohler-Faria excelled in school. Introducing Mohler-Faria, School Committee chair Robert Brousseau recalled teaching Mohler-Faria during his first year as an 8th-grade English teacher in Wareham. He said Mohler-Faria was extremely quiet and always had his homework completed. Brousseau said he has great pride that Wareham has produced someone of such “great stature”.

After graduating from Wareham High School, Mohler-Faria enlisted in the military. He then attended Cape Cod Community College, Boston University, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He was the first in his family to attend college.

“You have much opportunity and you have many challenges,” Mohler-Faria told the students.

He talked about the one billion children in the world living in poverty and families living on $2.50 a day, urging the students to make a difference in the world.

“You need to take action,” he said. “We can make a difference, and when we think we can’t, we need to think again.”

The material things in life don’t matter, he said. “What’s going to matter is what you did.”
This was the second annual celebration and was organized by a committee of volunteers from the Boys & Girls Club, Gleason Family YMCA, Wareham Public Schools, A.D. Makepeace Company, area churches, and the Fourth District Court. The event was created last year by Barbara Sullivan, Wareham Unit Director of the Boys & Girls Club, in collaboration with Wareham Public Schools.

Students honored: AmberLee Filkins, Wareham Middle School; Steven DeGrace, Wareham Junior/Senior Cooperative High School; Joseph Feeley, Bristol County Agricultural High School; Cameron Myers, Wareham High School; Brianna Busby, Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical School; Kali Fernandes, Minot Forest Elementary; Maddison Kuklinski, John W. Decas Elementary; Leah Higgins, Boys & Girls Club of Wareham; Jules Tavares, Gleason Family YMCA

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