With Monday is slated to be very cold — like, single-digit-if-you’re-lucky cold — organizers of the Marade, Denver’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day march/parade, are shortening their program and urging those most vulnerable to find ways to celebrate his legacy indoors.
The event will start a half-hour later than originally planned; the opening ceremony at the base of the MLK Jr. statue in City Park has been pushed back to 10 a.m. Monday morning. From there, participants will follow a route that ends in Civic Center Park. Speaker programs in both parks will be shorter than originally planned.
Organizers are urging older people, children and those with ongoing health issues to skip the event this year. They also hope participants will leave their dogs at home and spare them the cold.
“Due to the weather conditions, individuals who wish to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in alternative ways can do so by volunteering at a local non-profit, assisting neighbors, checking on seniors in your community, etc.” the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Colorado Holiday Commission said in a release Thursday.
To help those who do come out stay safe while participating, the event’s coordinators are combatting the chill by setting up warming stations along the Marade route.
According to Dr. Vern Howard, the MLK Colorado Holiday Commission chairman, terrible weather has never stopped people in Denver from marching on Dr. King’s birthday.
“We attempted to cancel the Marade back in 1994 and to no avail because people still came out, they still marched. We had a very horrific snowstorm, one that we did not anticipate. People continued to come out all the same,” Howard recalled. “And so we learned then that this is the real people's march, and it has been the people's march ever since.”
This year, the bitter cold air is expected to settle in through the weekend, with high temperatures in the single digits starting Monday and wind chills making it feel significantly colder. Lows for the I-25 corridor and Eastern Plains could plummet to -10 to -20 degrees, with the coldest conditions anticipated Monday night.
After a first round of snow on Friday or Saturday, additional accumulation is expected on Sunday and Monday, with areas east of the Continental Divide experiencing the harshest conditions.
While this year is more extreme than normal, cold weather has become a part of the event’s tradition. Howard noted the parade in 2008 featured negative temperatures, and the year following was even colder.
“We’ve learned that no matter how hard we may think we're going to cancel the march, it's not going to happen,” Howard said.
Another tradition is picking a theme for each year. This year's is “Make real the promise of Democracy.” By having people march, Howard hopes to remind everyone of their rights.
“What I look forward to the most is people being able to exercise their First Amendment rights by doing everything that Dr. King would have them to do,” Howard said. “We want people to understand the importance of getting out and exercising their right to assemble, their right to vote, their right to tell the people who we elect what to do and how to do it because that is what the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution actually gives us the right to do.”
Alongside the march, the MLK Commission will be handing out around 4,000 meals to people experiencing homelessness, as well as taking donations of non-perishable foods, personal hygiene products, cold weather gear like coats and blankets and even old cellphones.
“The last time Dr. King came to Denver on May 21st, 1967, he appointed Corky Gonzalez as the Poor People's Campaign chairman in Colorado,” Howard said. “And what we have been doing (since) is continuing to build on that legacy.”
CPR’s Molly Cruse contributed reporting.
