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MLK-inspired events aim to serve CNY's neediest, improve equity in health care

John O'Hara stands in the Nottingham HS gym
John Smith
/
WAER News
John O'Hara stands in the Nottingham HS gym Jan. 20, 2025.

Some much needed warm winter clothing will be headed to Central New Yorkers after donations came pouring into Nottingham High School Monday morning. The 23rd annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service relies on donations and hundreds of volunteers. United Way of CNY President Nancy Eaton says about 40-percent of Onondaga County residents are struggling, and they’ll need some assistance to get through the cold winter temperatures.

“Warm coats for women, men and children throughout the community," Eaton said. "These coats are boxed-up and distributed to agencies servicing folks in the community.”

Donated winter clothing items await sorting.
John Smith
/
WAER News
Donated winter clothing items await sorting.

Eaton says countless people came together on MLK Jr. Day for the common good. During the past 23 years working at the drive, Greater Syracuse Labor Council President Mark Spadafore says he’s witnessed the spirit of Dr. King in hundreds of volunteers.

“Because Dr. King’s presence lives through each one of us whenever we volunteer, whenever we get involved in the community… try to make things better. That’s his dream,” Spadafore said.

John O’Hara says he rolls up his sleeves every year to make a delivery to the Western suburbs of Onondaga County.

"I send mine out to the Baptist church in Jordan, where there's a big need out in that part of the Onondaga-Cayuga County area."

Rows of tables and boxes fill the Nottingham HS gym.
John Smith
/
WAER News
Rows of tables and boxes fill the Nottingham HS gym.

One of the youngest additions to the MLK Day of Service is J’Viona Baker who returned for her second year.

“The unity and being here together where everyone is seeing everyone put all this hard work together to put greatness back into the community. I think that’s such a big thing that MLK promoted.”

Baker says they are missing the drive’s founder, Helen Hudson. She's carried on King’s legacy and mission year after year, but was unable to this year due to medical reasons.

EQUITY IN HEALTH CARE

Central New York’s medical community is also carrying on Martin Luther King Jr.’s commitment to equity, especially when it comes to patients with disabilities. Upstate Medical University students organized a health justice conference Monday, and Assistant Professor Liz Bowen was one of the speakers. She also works to promote disability access and care, including helping doctors understand disability as part of a patient’s identity.

“It's not just a condition of one's body, but it's a way you move through the world. It affects the kinds of barriers you come up against and things that you want to do," Bowen said. "The way people look at you, having a health care provider that understands those nuances and those complexities just makes it so that you have to explain a lot less.”

Dozens of students fill a large room at Upstate Medical University for a student-organized Health Justice Conference.
Holliday Moore
/
WAER News
Dozens of students fill a large room at Upstate Medical University for a student-organized Health Justice Conference.

Bowen herself lives with numerous auto-immune challenges.
She says women with disabilities especially face many assumptions from health care providers, including that they can’t reproduce. She says doctors and nurses with personal connections to disability can better understand patients with similar backgrounds.

John Smith has been waking up WAER listeners for a long time as our Local Co-Host of Morning Edition with timely news and information, working alongside student Sportscasters from the Newhouse School.
Scott Willis covers politics, local government, transportation, and arts and culture for WAER. He came to Syracuse from Detroit in 2001, where he began his career in radio as an intern and freelance reporter. Scott is honored and privileged to bring the day’s news and in-depth feature reporting to WAER’s dedicated and generous listeners. You can find him on twitter @swillisWAER and email him at srwillis@syr.edu.