New Mount Olive Youth Group witnesses history
Staff writer
Teenagers today were not part of the Civil Rights Movement or desegregation in America but much of the freedoms and opportunities they experience come from the sacrifice and commitment of the grandparents and great grand-parents who were there.
Teenagers were not alive on Aug. 28, 1963 when an estimated quarter of a million people marched on Washington to stand up for jobs and freedom, but members of the youth group at New Mount Olive Baptist Church of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. witnessed history when they attended the second inauguration of President Barack Obama on Monday, January 21, 2013.
Along with 850,000 people from across the country and around the world, middle and high school students from our community watched the inauguration ceremony on the National Mall area. “I was much too far away to see what was actually happening on the stage but looking at the jumbo TV screen I felt close enough to reach out and touch the President”, said high school fresh-man Aaron Coddington.
Included in their activities in Washington, the New Mount Olive youth visited the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial, toured the Smithsonian Museums of American and Natural History, and attended the inaugural ceremony and parade. “I didn’t have a good view of the parade but I was amazed when the President’s limousine stopped right in front of me and the President and First Lady, Michelle Obama were less than ten feet away”, said 17-year-old Sarah Cone.
The youth ministry model at New Mount Olive Baptist Church is a leadership model that is designed to help its young people grow and develop mentally, physically, spiritually and socially. The 2013 Inauguration Trip produced a far greater impact than the adult leaders anticipated.
Reverend James “Crunch” Melton, Youth Pastor at New mount Olive said “this trip was living history for our teenagers. They will tell this story for the rest of their life. For some, their dream of becoming President of the United States is a closer reality than it’s ever been before”.
