With slideshow: Ann Arbor school ties MLK day celebration to help for Haiti earthquake victims

“I said, ‘What if I told you that there was a place near here where most of the people - the adults - had less than $2 a day of food and clothes and everything they needed? That’s not very fair. That’s not equal. And you can imagine that they wouldn’t be able to build strong houses or have good doctors if they didn’t have any money. So what if I told you that in this place there was a terrible earthquake?'

“We can’t talk about equality and freedom when we have so much and they are in so much need.”

She went on to explain the student council is collecting money for Doctors Without Borders. She told the students their job this weekend is to go to the adults in their lives and remind them if they want to help, they should send money into the school’s collection.

Ann Arbor area schools were spending Thursday and today commemorating King because they are off on Monday.

That meant signing songs, listening to poetry, getting history lessons, and in several cases, listening to guest speakers. At Ypsilanti’s Chapelle Elementary School, a parent who was involved in freedom marches in Memphis spoke to students.

Not all the celebrations stayed in school.

A group of students from Ann Arbor’s Scarlett Middle School was scheduled to take the assembly on the road to the Toyota Technical Center this afternoon.

At Open, Zikmund-Fisher will be sending an e-mail to her school’s parents, looking for donations and driving home her message.

“We can’t celebrate Dr. King this weekend when there are people suffering so close to us if we don’t pay attention,” she said.

• See a complete list of MLK Day events around the area.

Slideshow of the MLK Day sing-along at Ypsilanti's Erickson Elementary School.

David Jesse covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at davidjesse@annarbor.com or at 734-623-2534.