Update: This event has been moved online. The Ada Jenkins Center has decided it is wisest to hold it virtually.

Registration is limited to the first 75 people; participants can email josh.kiser@adajenkins.org for the Zoom link.

Jan. 7. By Dave Yochum. The Ada Jenkins Center in Davidson will hold a “gathering of prayer, song, and community” at 5 pm today in the wake of the events yesterday at the US Capitol in Washington DC. The goal, according to Ada Jenkins CEO Harold Rice, is to affirm unity and care for our neighbors and each other.

Speakers include Rabbi David Lipper of Temple Kol Tikvah in Davidson, Rev. Tracey Mattison Brandon of Gethsemane Baptist Church and , CEO of the Ada Jenkins Center.

The Ada Jenkins Center, which serves North Mecklenburg families in crisis with food, medical care and education, is located at 212 Gamble St. in Davidson. It has also been a center of community discussion and healing.

Double standard

Harold Rice

“The past 24 hours in our collective history have been sobering,” Rice said, explaining that he believed the protestors yesterday would have been “dead” if they were black.

“If it was protestors from Black Lives Matter, these people would have been dead. It says we’re not where we need to be as a nation,” Rice said.

Background

Social equity and unity have been top of mind for local leaders, especially since the George Floyd tragedy. All three North Meck police chiefs and mayors participated in a virtual conversation on social and racial equity in our North Mecklenburg last September.

About 110 people from Cornelius, Davidson and Huntersville attended via Zoom.

“People get to storm the Capitol but no one used the thug language,” Rice explained.

Rice said he tried to take a step back from the live insurrection on television. He asked himself, “what can we do to help pull our community together?”

The event includes time to share poetry and meditation. Social distancing and face masks are required. For more information, please call 704-896-0471, ext.109.