{"id":53580,"date":"2025-01-21T00:42:34","date_gmt":"2025-01-21T05:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=53580"},"modified":"2025-01-21T00:42:50","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T05:42:50","slug":"lakeland-church-hosts-block-party-and-offers-resources-in-honor-of-dr-mlk-jr-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/01\/21\/lakeland-church-hosts-block-party-and-offers-resources-in-honor-of-dr-mlk-jr-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakeland church hosts block party and offers resources in honor of Dr. MLK Jr. Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Every year on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a local church gathers vendors, churchgoers, church elders, and anyone who wanders in for a sense of community and resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDr. King seemed to fight for freedom and we appreciate that, of course, our church is a really diverse congregation, people from all walks of life,\u201d said Steven Weathers, an elder at Strong Tower Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Strong Tower Church held its annual block party on the campus of Parker Street Ministries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust servicing, loving one another, being there for one another,\u201d Community Health Coordinator at Lakeland Regional Health Ahmad Black said.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Community Health Coordinator at Lakeland Regional Health Ahmad Black<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

For the staff, doctors, and community health advocates at Lakeland Regional Health, a way to be there for people is through free health screenings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are the community hospital so it\u2019s so important for us to be out here, doing those preventative screenings, making sure our community is getting healthier,\u201d the Director of Community Health at Lakeland Regional Health Lauren Springfield said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The LRH team spent Dr. MLK Jr. Day volunteering at local organizations and providing blood pressure, cholesterol, and BMI screenings at Strong Tower Church\u2019s block party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAccess still continues to be a huge problem in our community,\u201d said Springfield. \u201cOur residents are here largely to solve that problem and try to lessen the blow on our community to help people get to the doctor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Barber Skate Shop offered free haircuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI do it for the love and to see the smiles on people\u2019s faces, the kids and stuff like that. I live in this community and my barber shop is in this community so this is the time we come out and give back,\u201d said Jairus Rutherford, the owner of the barbershop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many, in his short life, Dr. King cemented a legacy of equality and country for all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe really pushed for the country to live up to the ideals that are written in the constitution and Declaration of Independence,\u201d said Terry Coney, the President of the NAACP Lakeland branch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strong Tower Church elder Weathers said Dr. King\u2019s legacy is a fight for freedom that is felt in his diverse congregation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cOur country seems to be more polarized. I think Dr. King who sought to bring people together, even people who might not have thought like he did, may not have looked like he did,\u201d said Weathers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To some, there is still work left to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe still have not come to a point in our country where we accept the diversity of our culture. We are still far away from what his dream is,\u201d said Lesley Long, a church member.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monday was the 30th annual National Day of Service in honor of Dr. King.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every year on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a local church gathers vendors, churchgoers, church elders, and anyone who wanders in for a sense of community and resources. \u201cDr.… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"6","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMDFcL1NjcmVlbnNob3QtNzUtMjItcG5nLndlYnA_Zml0PTUzNSUyQzI5NSZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6Ikxha2VsYW5kIGNodXJjaCBob3N0cyBibG9jayBwYXJ0eSBhbmQgb2ZmZXJzIHJlc291cmNlcyBpbiBob25vciBvZiBEci4gTUxLIEpyLiBEYXkiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImhpZ2h3YXkiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.43XEL7gPGF6sgI5w8dTFd8WAphE2I8DDdigGeV_UhvkMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":53585,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-75-22-png.webp","type":"image\/png"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53580"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53586,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53580\/revisions\/53586"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}