Update: Due to a forecast for frigid temperatures on Monday, Jan. 20, the MLK Day March has been canceled.
Blount County MLK Celebration Planning Committee announces plans for 2025 holiday
January 4, 2025
Blount Countians are invited to celebrate the life and legacy of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., with three observances planned for the 2025 MLK Day holiday and preceding weekend.
Members of the Blount County MLK Celebration Planning Committee recently announced information about events set for Jan. 17-20, including the names of guest speakers and theme for the holiday weekend – “Realizing the Dream Through Service and the Arts.”
Denise Dean, executive director of the East Tennessee Freedom Schools (ETFS), will be the keynote speaker at the annual MLK Day Business Luncheon, scheduled for noon, Jan. 17, at the Airport Hilton.
Elder Bobby Fields, Jr. ’99, pastor of Mt. Olive Baptist Church in Loudon, Tennessee, will lead the community worship service at Bethel Missionary Baptist Church in Alcoa (537 N. Hall Road) at 4 p.m., Jan. 19. Special music will be provided by The Overflow.
Marc Burnett, Alcoa native and retired Tennessee Tech administrator, will be the special guest for the 2025 MLK Day Celebration, scheduled for 2 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 20, in the William Baxter Lee Grand Foyer of the Clayton Center for the Arts (CCA) at Maryville College. Burnett, commissioner with the Tennessee Arts Commission, is exhibiting his work in the DENSO and La Dolce Vita galleries of the CCA. His exhibit, “REMNANTS,” will be on display throughout the month of January.
“We are very excited to announce this year’s events planned to honor and celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,” said Adriel McCord ’00, co-chair of the Blount County MLK Celebration Planning Committee. “We believe all of our speakers and guests will bring messages that will resonate with and inspire those who attend.”
McCord said he and the planning committee set out to offer programming different than previous years and involve more youth and community members.
“We are especially pleased that an art competition held this fall in the local schools has resulted in a painting that we are using to promote the holiday in Blount County,” McCord said. “Art has a way of bringing people together and introducing new perspectives and inspiring new ideas, which are some of the reasons we selected it as a theme.”
Dean will headline business luncheon
Dean has been the executive director of the East Tennessee Freedom Schools (ETFS) since 2017. The free six-week summer literacy and empowerment program is designed to help children become better readers, better learners, better citizens, and practice making a difference. In addition to leading the East Tennessee Freedom Schools, Dean serves on the boards of Freedom Village of Hope (her own 501C3), Muse Knoxville and the East Tennessee Foundation.
Dean earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Harvard University and completed a master’s degree in organizational development from American University. She spent more than 20 years working at IBM, starting as a sales representative and advancing to director and executive and organizational consultant. In 2003, Dean left IBM to teach, earning a teaching credential from San Jose State University in California. She spent her first year of teaching with 5th grade students in San Jose, and in subsequent moves, has delivered programs and tutored children at elementary schools in Bethel, Connecticut; Dubai, U.A.E.; and Knoxville, Tennessee.
Today, she lives in Jefferson City with her husband, Dr. Mark E. Dean.
Tickets for the luncheon are $37 each or $370 for a table of 10 and can be purchased through the celebration planning committee’s Facebook page, facebook.com/mlkblount, or by contacting the Blount County Chamber of Commerce. The deadline for reserving seats for the luncheon is Jan. 13, 2025.
Fields to lead worship
Fields, a 1999 graduate of Maryville College, accepted his call to preach the Gospel in 2002 while serving as a deacon under the late Elder Dr. Joe L. Colquitt and became the youth minister at St. John Missionary Baptist Church in Alcoa. After his trial sermon, Fields attended the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, where he graduated in 2008 with a master of divinity degree. After serving as the college pastor at First Baptist Church of Maryville, he became the pastor of Loudon’s Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church in 2014. An employee of the Helen Ross McNabb Center, Fields is currently completing a doctorate in education from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Fields is married to Tayna Kirlew “Toni” Fields ’00, and they have three sons.
Monday activities begin with march
The holiday observances on Jan. 20 will begin with the annual MLK Day March, led by Grand Marshal Larry Ervin ’97, former director of the MLK Celebration Mass Choir and retired director of Maryville College’s Center for Diversity and Inclusion. (Note: Due to a forecast for frigid temperatures on Jan. 20, the MLK Day March has been canceled.) Marchers will assemble for it at 12:30 p.m. at the Martin Luther King Community Center in Alcoa and walk to the Maryville College campus for the afternoon celebration, which will begin at 2 p.m. in the CCA’s William Baxter Lee III Grand Foyer. There, attendees will see and hear selections prepared by the Alcoa High School Concert Choir, directed by Jasmine Andrews, and students in the William Blount High School Theatre program, led by Tracey Halter.
Burnett, a self-taught artist who has been painting since the late 1990s and has exhibited his work all over the state, will speak and unveil a new painting that will be donated to the MLK Center in Alcoa.
A fair of five local non-profit organizations – All Are Worthy, Hall-Oldfield-Maryville Empowerment Inc. (H.O.M.E. Inc.), Safe Families for Children, the Welcome Table and MLK Center – will run concurrently in the foyer.
“Service plays such an important role in our community, and service is a huge part of Dr. King’s legacy,” said Vivian Hill, co-chair of the Blount County MLK Celebration Planning Committee. “By inviting these nonprofits to the Monday celebration, we wanted to connect attendees with opportunities to serve and build what King spoke so often about – ‘the beloved community.’”
Ella McNulty, a 9th grader at Maryville Junior High School and winner of the school art competition for the MLK Celebration, will be recognized at the ceremony. Kenny Dean, executive director of True Hoops, a non-profit AAU basketball league for youth in the area, will be honored with the Anthony Dunning Community Service Award. The winner of the annual MLK Scholarship also will be announced at the Monday event and will recite their winning essay there.
Both the worship service and community celebration are free and open to the public.
For more information, visit facebook.com/mlkblount.
