Taylorville Family Fun Center hosted a Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration on Saturday with performances by the Selma High School band and Random Acts of Theatre, a local community theatre group.

“The vision [Dr. King] had is the reason why we are here,” said Keisha Ware, promotions and marketing manager at Taylorville.

Ms. Ware asked Random Acts of Theatre to join the celebration because the group is a mixture of ethnicities.

“They are the epitome of what Martin Luther King, Jr. stood for,” Ms. Ware said.

After an opening prayer, the Selma High band kicked off the event by marching in to the music of the drum line, and then band and dance teams performed several songs, one that was a musical tribute to Dr. King.

Random Acts of Theatre members performed next, singing “Joyful, joyful” and Michael Jackson’s “Heal the World.”

The group wore T-shirts with Dr. King’s photo and the words “revolution, hope, movement, dream, progressive, love” displayed on the front.

“Joyful, joyful is a song that I love,” said Amanda Farnsworth, artistic director of Random Acts of Theatre. “Plus it’s a mixture of rap and R&B. The kids really like that.”

Ms. Farnsworth also chose the Michael Jackson song to use in the performance.

“It’s always been a really strong song for the message for Martin Luther King, Jr.,” Ms. Farnsworth said.

Kyra Body, a fifth-grade student at Edgewood and member of Random Acts of Theatre, has been studying about Martin Luther King, Jr. since the third grade.

“He was a great person,” Kyra said. “He accomplished many things in his lifetime.” She knows that Dr. King is important in Selma history because of his involvement with “Bloody Sunday,” which occurred in 1965.

“Martin Luther King, Jr. and some other people went across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, but when they got across they got stopped by the police,” Kyra said.

To remember Dr. King’s legacy, Kyra and her family may go out to dinner on Monday celebrate.

Taylorville will also be holding an essay contest in February for African-American history month. The contest will have an awards ceremony on Feb. 27.