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Student volunteers worked on making bracelets during the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. celebration at the Middlesboro Community Center. (Photos by Jay Compton)

Folks make their way through the soup line during ‘Soup for the Soul’ at the Middlesboro Community Center on Monday.

Middlesboro Schools had a wide variety of books about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. available for free at Monday’s event.

Amedisys Home Health provided blood pressure screenings at ‘Soup for the Soul.’

The local American Legion post provided information at Monday's event.

Free copies of the Bell County Resource guide were available.

Vendors were on hand with a variety of items available.

The Middlesboro Community Center hosted “Soup for the Soul,” a community service activity in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday.

Volunteers provided a wide variety of hot soups with plenty of sides and drinks that were available for free. Middlesboro Schools handed out free books on Dr. King and other tables were set up with Amedisys Home Health providing blood pressure checks, free Bell County Resource Guides, the American Legion, Arts and Crafts for children and other vendors.

A unity walk planned from Southeast Community College to the Community Center was cancelled due to extremely cold temperatures.

“We celebrate Dr. King every year with our annual program (at White Memorial AME Zion Church on Sunday). Folks in the community asked why we didn’t do something on Monday, which is the actual day we celebrate his holiday,” said Buffy Dunnaville , who helped to organize the event. “So this year we tried to do an activity to help bring the community together. Everybody loves soup, so we did Soup for the Soul.”

The event also featured the playing of some of Dr. King’s most famous speeches and several group activities that helped those in attendance learn more about King, his dream of seeing a world where people are judged on the content of their character and not the color of their skin, and his commitment to nonviolent protests.

“We just wanted people to come out, learn more about Dr. King, and come together because in the long run in our world we’re better together than apart,” Dunnaville added. “It’s a way to celebrate the legacy of Dr. King.”

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