Local Nonprofit Celebrates Dr. King’s Legacy

St. Petersburg, Florida – On Monday, 17 Jan. 2022, volunteers from The Way to Happiness Association Tampa Bay participated in the 35th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Dream Big Parade.

To the beat of “Hold Yo’ Head Up High” by Tha Real Kodda One, three dozen volunteers in matching t-shirts marched and danced down the 1-mile stretch of St. Petersburg’s 1st Avenue South and passed out 3,097 The Way to Happiness booklets to smiling onlookers. The song, a mixture of gospel and rap, which speaks of “truth, love, hope,” was a fitting theme for the non-religious common-sense guide to better living contained in the booklet.

Ten varied marching bands also participated in the MLK Parade, from the historically black colleges of Tuskegee University in Alabama and Texas Southern University, to Florida schools like Palm Beach Lakes High School and Stranaham High School in Ft. Lauderdale.

The annual MLK Dream Big Parade hosted by Advantage Village Academy and sponsored by the City of St. Petersburg has seen 40,000 attendees in previous years. This year the parade was transformed into the MLK Dream Big Weekend with a series of smaller events over several days to compensate for COVID-19 safety measures. Events included a band showcase, a gospel choir showcase and a Family Fun Day at Tropicana Field over the weekend of January 15 and 16 with the parade held on Monday, January 17.

Mayor Ken Welsh, the first African-American mayor in St. Petersburg’s history, also rode in the parade, sending a positive message of unity and progress to all those watching.

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is ‘What are you doing for others?'” said the ever-eloquent Dr. King in 1957. Today The Way to Happiness Association Tampa Bay spends hundreds of hours each year volunteering in the community, participating in neighborhood and beach clean-ups and passing out its namesake booklet. “We have the goal of restoring honesty, integrity and trust to our community,” said the Executive Director Sonia Fabemoli, “The Way to Happiness is based solely on common sense morals, so it is easy for anyone to read and apply it to improve their lives, and those of their friends and family.”