
BELLINGHAM, Wash., Jan. 19 – Students, staff, city employees, and community members gathered in the sunny cafeteria of Bellingham High School this past Saturday to honor Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy during a service day event. The event was coordinated by the Community Consortium for Cultural Recognition, which includes Whatcom Community College (WCC) as a funding partner.
“It’s not a day off, it’s a day on,” quoted multiple speakers, including Ibidunni Ojikutu, a professional Opera Singer and alumna of both Bellingham High School and Western Washington University.
The program opened with a community breakfast followed by a performance by the Cheskin Singers from Ferndale High School. Regarding the breakfast, Bellingham City Council Member Michael Lillequist said, “We’re here to make connections and what says that more than breaking bread together.”

Singers, drummers, and dancers made up the ensemble that sang the Lummi National Anthem with a rapt audience. The anthem tells the story of a great flood that forced the elders to teach their children all of their songs and all of their medicine before sending the children out in canoes to ensure the survival of the Lummi people.
“Every person had a job, every person had a responsibility,” according to the singers’ teacher, Smak i’ ya’ (Matt Warbus).
He emphasized the importance of learning from the past to cultivate the future, and that sharing lessons with each other is one of the important ways to do this. Of the event blessing, Smak i’ ya’ said “this is not just for me, not just for you… this is for every one of us.”
WCC’s Ian Garconette spoke on an educational panel alongside representatives from the Whatcom Racial Equity Commission, Bellingham Public Schools, and Recovery Café. The speakers discussed Black excellence, discomfort in changemaking, and acknowledgement of the past in front of an intergenerational, racially and ethnically diverse audience.
At WCC, Garconette studies Cloud Computing in the Information Technology and Computer Science Department. He regularly visits the Veterans Center and is a member of the Black Student Union (BSU).

Garconette sees making connections between the people he meets as one of his many roles on campus, and finding these connections extends to intersectional advocacy because one of his goals for the BSU is to advocate within Whatcom to establish a labor acknowledgement alongside the existing land acknowledgement. It is something he has been thinking about this holiday because Martin Luther King Jr.’s words and actions sparked a “poor people’s movement,” Garconette said. Notably, the famous 1983 March on Washington’s full name was the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.”
On stage, Garconette was thoughtful, intentional, and not afraid to take his time to find the right words to summarize justice and equality efforts in Bellingham. “We all need to be rowing in the same direction together,” said Garconette.
Between Ojikutu contextualizing Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a day “on” for community service, Lillequist’s observation about shared breakfast as an act of community, and the responsibilities of each community member referenced by Smak i’ ya’, the entire event resonated with Garconette’s message to collectivize action for racial equity and justice.