Utah State MLK vigil rescheduled again
The 11th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Vigil, held by the Utah State University Black Student Union, or BSU, will be a time for students and the community to come together to celebrate and honor the civil rights activist and minister.
“By holding this event we want to let people know that BSU is open to everyone and that our mission is unity,” BSU marketing manager Nura Omer said. “We want to educate people on our history, culture and how to be a better ally.”
This year’s vigil was supposed to be held mid-January but was postponed again until March due to health concerns. The event was being planned months in advance during BSU’s council meetings at least once every week, sometimes more.
“It was a tough decision to postpone the vigil because we had worked so hard and were very excited for it,” BSU President Hallie Magnuson said. “Ultimately, we wanted to be responsible and put our community’s safety before anything else.”
Magnuson said they wanted to ensure the safety of the community as an organization for the people and as representatives of the university.
“The original event got pushed and then canceled. I am concerned about this happening again,” Omer said. “This is something we feel is important and we want it to work even though everything is last minute.”
The event is co-hosted by BSU and the Cache Community Connections. One of the goals for the event is to get the Cache Valley community and USU students to connect with each other.
“One of our main goals of this event is to honor MLK’s message of unity and we plan on doing that by making the event open to everyone regardless of age and if they are a student or not,” Omer said.
There will be a presentation on the history of Martin Luther King Jr., speakers and performances along with the candle-lighting vigil. Each attendee will light a candle to commemorate his activism during the civil rights movement.
“We plan on having someone from the USU community perform this year. I think this is much more intimate and allows us to showcase the talent on our very own campus,” Magnuson said.
The event hosts are encouraging for participants is to reflect on the work of Martin Luther King Jr. and his legacy, but most importantly knowing what needs to be done to reach what he intended for the future.
To attract attention to the event, Omer, who focuses on marketing and public relations, creates graphics, posts about the event and helps plan it along with the rest of the council.
Once it is safe to set the plans in place for the vigil, several graphics have already been created and are prepared to be released to inform students and community members of the event’s details.