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MLK Day 2026 marks 40 years of perseverance By CHRIS ColUCCI ccolucci@liherald.com
Chris Colucci/Herald
Long Beach students were at the front of the march making its way to the MLK Community Center during Monday’s celebration, singing, cheering and calling attention to the day.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. walked the streets of Long Beach in March 1968, less than two weeks before his assassination. Almost 60 years after his visit, and 40 years after Martin Luther King Jr. Day became a federal holiday across the country, more than 150 people of all creeds, colors and backgrounds marched those same streets, helping his spirit and message live on. The MLK Community Center celebrated the holiday with its annual commemorative march, which began at the corner of West Park Avenue and Laurelton Boulevard, across the street from the Laurel Diner. The Rev. Ronald McHenry, a Long Beach native and the pastor at Evangel Revival Community Church, led the march with a bullhorn in hand. The crowd ignored the chilly 31-degree weather, making its way down West Park Avenue for nearly a Continued on page 3
West Elementary teacher speaks at Denver conference By AIDAN WARSHAVSKY awarshavsky@liherald.com
W h e n We s t E l e m e n t a r y school reading teacher Kelly Mendoza isn’t visiting kindergarten classes or helping students in smaller group settings, she’s often broadening her knowledge as an educator. In November she was invited to make a presentation at the National Conference of Teachers of English, at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. NCTE focuses on improving the teaching and learning of English and language arts at all levels of education. Each year, NCTE members are invited to
present research and demonstrations. Mendoza was part of a six-person group representing Hofstra University’s Reading and Writing Learning Clinic, which included its director, professor Michele Marx. Mendoza and her colleagues explained how they used children’s books to illuminate concepts like friendship, bullying and body image in order to help create a positive learning environment and a safe space for teachers and students. The goal, Mendoza said, was “honoring student voices and discussing how students are impacted through diverse literature.”
While her fellow educators focused on their experience, Mendoza, who has been an adjunct professor at Hofstra since 2022, explored what teaching children’s books might look like to new educators. In her Literacy Studies Practicum Course at the university, graduate students used “Operation Frog Effect” to teach sixth-grade students from the Hempstead, Uniondale and Roosevelt districts. The story, by Sarah Scherger, focuses on eight diverse fifth-graders who explore concepts like bullying, immigration and poverty. “We wanted students to form connections with characters,”
Mendoza said. “Exploring different characters can help them explore deeper messages and help them to grow.” Despite missing the first day and a half of the four-day conference due to travel complications, Mendoza was able to take advantage of its other offerings. An exhibit hall at the convention center featured pub-
lishers like Scholastic and Heinemann, which Mendoza said was a “reading teacher’s dream.” After the conference, she shipped more than two dozen books to her Westbury home, including “Braiding Sweetgrass,” by Robin Wall Kimmerer, after the two shared what Mendoza described as a Continued on page 3