Speeches and readings echoed off the walls of the AlexanderJunior High School auditorium in commemoration of the life of Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. Saturday evening during the Alpha Phi AlphaFraternity Inc., Mu Pi Lambda Chapter’s annual Kingcelebration.

“Every year we try to say ‘thank you’ to Dr. King and then moveforward,” said Louis Parker, who presided over the event. “Tomorrowis a new day and we try to get better.”

This year’s theme, “The Celebration of a Legacy and Call toAction,” was demonstrated during the program through variousreadings, but it was the second part of the theme that keynotespeaker the Rev. Charles Eddie Spencer focused on while addressingthe crowd.

“Preaching is a lot of time your actions,” said Spencer. “Youcan impact people by your actions, your life that you live, morethan your words.”

Spencer, who serves as pastor for Kynett United MethodistChurch, urged those that attended to go back to their communitiesand make a difference.

“One thing is to challenge people to never become satisfied,”said Spencer. “But always striving to see things change or make adifference.”

While Spencer encouraged audience members to make a differencein someone’s life, the celebration aspect of the event included areception that doubled as a birthday party. The change in date,however, may have resulted in a smaller audience than expected.

“We changed it to Saturday because of (Dr. Martin Luther KingJr.’s actual) birthday,” said Parker. “I think that a lot of peoplehave it in the back of their minds that, ‘hey, Sunday afternoonthey’re having an MLK program.”

However, the lull in usual attendance for the program did nottake away from the event’s purpose.

“It inspires me to see a few people (willing) to do the rightthing,” said Parker. “It only takes a few to make adifference.”

While those that attended thought King’s dream might have becomea reality over the years, they also thought that his dream acts asa foundation to build upon.

“If we live by Dr. King’s dream, it’s continuous, the strugglecontinues on all fronts,” said Parker. “Times have changed, thecondition in our state has changed for the better, but there isalways room for improvement.”

As the program ended with punch and cookies, event coordinatorshope the messages of the program stick with audience members toreach every neighborhood in the city.

“If we continue to unify all our communities in Brookhaven, weas all people will be better,” said Parker. “The impact (of theprogram), I believe, is that the people that were here will takethe charge, the challenge, to go back into our communities (andmake a difference).”