Children from local child-care centers learned more about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and honored his life Monday at the fifth annual YWCA King Day celebration.

In recognition of the gifts King gave our nation, the approximately 125 children were offered creative ways to celebrate his vision of hope and sense of humanity.

"They are writing and creating birthday cards for Dr. King that will be sent to the Martin Luther King Center in Atlanta," said Cheryl Gahring, director of child care.

They also signed a large "I Have A Dream" poster to go along with the cards, made peace necklaces and wrote about their own dreams.

"My dream is that all people can have a home," said 8-year-old Arreyon Stewart, displaying a white and blue cloud with the word DREAM painted on her left wrist.

The second-grader said she has a home but recalled a time when she encountered a homeless person while walking to the park.

"I was going to the park with my god-brother one day, and we saw a man with a sign that said that he needed food and a place to stay," said Arreyon. "The next day we went back, and he was still there, but this time we brought him some food," she said proudly.

The children, between the ages of 5 and 12, looked at the life and accomplishments of the civil rights leader from his early years as a student.

"He got in trouble a lot," said 10-year-old Maddison Snyder. "All because he was always trying to change the way people treated each other."

Jamie Autry, 9, agreed.

"Black people were not supposed to mix with the white people," she said. "When someone doesn't get something because of the color of their skin, that's not right."

Both were quick to point out that if it wasn't for King's famous speech they, along with the rest of the children, would not have been celebrating together.

"Look at us," said Maddison with obvious excitement.

"Right here there are black, Hispanics and white kids," she said pointing at the gym where the kids and volunteers gathered.

The youngsters talked about equality, compassion, skin color and understanding during a presentation by Conrad Moore, the YWCA's racial justice and advocacy trainer.

"I try to find ways to help them understand Dr. King's basic concern," said Moore. "That there was always enough for everybody but not everybody had access to it."

The birthday celebration couldn't have been complete without the traditional cake. But even the distribution of the cake turned out to be another lesson for the children.

Moore gave each child a black or red piece of ribbon. Once all the ribbons were distributed, he asked all the children with a red ribbon to stand up and walk to the back of the room.

"Only the kids holding a black ribbon are going to get a piece of cake and some juice," he told them.

The room became silent for a few seconds.

"Oh, that's not fair," said a few young voices in unison.

"I simply raised an issue where the children had to say: 'wait a minute, that doesn't sound fair,' " said Moore.

"It has to be in a way that impacts them and that they will actually remember," he said. "And they learn that they can do something about it."

Lesson learned.

They all got their piece of cake.

"Remember that he changed that people had to sit at the back of the bus and so did Rosa Parks," Arreyon said. "They made sure it was fair to all of us, and you know what? I would've stayed in the front, too."

ebetancourt@lnpnews.com