Thousands of Coloradoans Dare to Dream at MLK Marade

For the first time ever, thousands of marchers in the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Marade in Denver participated in a process to envision a better Colorado and America.

The visioning process was facilitated by Let Us Rise on January 19, the day before the historic inauguration of President Barack Obama, as part of the official Marade rally at Civic Center Park.

In addition, Let Us Rise volunteers fanned out among the crowd during the march itself to collect marcher's visions for change. All told, Let Us Rise collected some three hundred visions for change.

"Martin Luther King, Jr. changed the world by sharing his dreams, working to make them a reality, and never giving up," said Ashara Ekundayo, who serves on the Leadership Circle of Let Us Rise. "It is time for all of us to take responsibility for our power. It is time for all of us to be the vision holders for our future."

We are working on a new component of our website which will allow us to display indivduals' visions with pretty formatting, but for a sneak preview of the content, click here.

Let Us Rise collaborated with the Colorado Progressive Coalition (CPC) and Denver Open Media on this effort. High school age volunteers for CPC interviewed Marade participants, and also created videos and hosted a TV show for Denver's public access TV!

Thank you to all volunteers, to the City of Denver, and all of the MLK Marade Commissioners -- with a special shoutout to chair Vern Howard -- for providing this historic opportunity for Coloradoans.