Rosa Parks Day program
When: 1:30 p.m. Friday
Where: Rosa Parks Elementary School, 1210 S. Verity Parkway, Middletown
MIDDLETOWN — Darren Brown has been sifting through about 100 essays from third-, fourth- and fifth-graders at Rosa Parks Elementary School students since Thanksgiving.
Brown, a Middletown native working as the special assistant to the Associate Administrator Office of Civil Rights in Washington, will be judging an essay contest for a fifth consecutive year as part of his duties as the emcee of the annual Rosa Parks Day.
The event is Friday at the Middletown school bearing the civil rights leader’s name.
This year’s essay topic: What is your inspiration for a quality education and what will be your legacy?
“When I see these folks writing me, telling me what they want to do, I can tell they’re on the right path,” said Brown, a 1979 graduate of Middletown High School. “These kids can be successful, but somebody has to plant some positive seeds early.
“Students have to really think about what they’re going to write,” Brown continued. “It gets deep — the fourth-grade contest was a horse race.”
There will be three prizes for each grade level: $100 for first, $75 for second and $50 for third.
Brown also will honor five community members who have been actively involved in the Middletown school system.
This year’s honorees are Thomas Wiley, Edrena Jones, Charles E. Hall, Judy Dixon and Lucy Imogene Carine Martin.
Martin was Brown’s first-grade teacher at the former Garfield Elementary School, where “it was a pleasure to have him in my classroom.”
“He would often stay after school and clap erasers or rearrange the desks for me,” said Martin, who also will be celebrating her 81st birthday on Friday.
Brown said the annual event always circles back to one objective — to empower the community.
“There are a lot of great successes from Jerry Lucas to William Verity,” he said. “We’re a very impressive town.”
Kee Edwards, principal at Rosa Parks, said the event helps inspire students to write and to start thinking about the road ahead.
“It’s been highly motivational,” Edwards said. “They’re taking a look at their own educational future.”
After-school sessions were held for students who don’t have access to a computer at home or could finish the essay in class.
“If we don’t help our own, who will?” Brown asked.
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