Mike Wolanin | The Republic Bishop Johnnie Edwards delivers his keynote speech during the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day community breakfast at The Commons in Columbus, Ind., Monday, January 20, 2025. Edwards is also the president of the Bartholomew County/Columbus chapter of the NAACP.
The 29th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day program, organized by the African American Pastors Alliance, will be Jan. 19 at The Commons and starts an hour later than usual at 8:15 a.m.
“… when we first started, not many people had that day off,” Columbus Annual MLK Day committee chair Fred King said. “But since people have gotten that day off, we decided and we had been talking about it before of just having it a little later, one hour later.”
It is free to attend. A free hot buffet breakfast will be served at 8 a.m.
The theme of this year’s program is “I Am My Brother’s Keeper.” King said the political climate in the last year has caused people to lose access to food stamps or their jobs. In response, he said people have had to go the extra mile to help and look out for their neighbors.
“By doing food banks, like for example a barber in our neighborhood did a big food collection at his barbershop, and things people have done. Churches have gone extra miles to distribute food because of these things that have happened during the Trump administration and that’s where the idea came from,” King said.
This year’s keynote speaker will be BCSC special education teacher Whittney Wood-Gaines, whose speech will tie into this year’s theme. A Columbus native, Wood-Gaines attended and graduated from Indiana State University in 2008 with a bachelor of science in communications and criminology. She later went back to school in 2021 to earn her teaching license.
Her professional roots lie in social work, according to her biography. She has served at the Turning Point Domestic Violence shelter, Brighter Days homeless shelter and the Department of Child Services.
She is the leader of Paths to Success, a group that works with Black and biracial students to help them in academics and prepare for college, in addition to being a board member for both Foundation for Youth and The Arc of Bartholomew County and a co-advisor for the NAACP Youth Council branch.
“And then she organizes the Columbus Black History Month events and that’s kind of gotten to be a big deal because Black History Month, what we do is try to have almost something not every day of the month of February but many days,” King said. “That’s quite a bit of organizing involved so she kind of gets heavily involved in that…”
Wood-Gaines has been honored with several awards and nominations for her leadership and service, including the 2025 Women in Leadership award presented by the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce. She was also honored with the 2025 Building Community Award from IU Columbus. Outside of her social work, she is also the devoted mother of five children and the daughter of pastor James and Lisa Wood, according to her biography.
The program will also feature brief remarks and community updates from Mayor Mary Ferdon and BCSC Superintendent Chad Phillips. Six students in the community will also receive a $1,000 scholarship and a matching $1,000 scholarship from Ivy Tech Community College – Columbus. These scholarships are awarded based on financial need, academic performance, extracurricular activities and community involvement.
