Chandler Plante was 5 years old when he started a march in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. in Camp Verde in 2011. This year, for the eighth year in a row, Camp Verde hosted a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day march down Main Street on Monday.
That 5-year-old’s dream has become his town’s reality.
As a kindergartener, Plante enjoyed reading history books at the local library and found himself fascinated in King as a historical figure, as someone who inspired so many and whose influence transcended his own time.
“I would always see about the marches he was doing in other cities and states and I would always ask my mom why we hadn’t had any here,” Plante said. “And she just said we were too small a town, we’ve never had one and it’s never going to happen. That’s kind of when I had the mindset that I wanted to get it done. I wanted to have one, to put one on myself to honor Dr. King.”
As the march has continued for nearly a decade, it has become an institution of Camp Verde, featuring over 200 participants, guest speakers and an essay contest for local students. This year, the keynote was given by Mario Chagolla, Mingus Union High School wrestling coach who had spoken at the first ever MLK march in 2012, encouraging nonviolence and urging people to use words to solve their problems.
As the march has developed, Plante’s appreciation for MLK has grown with it. After all this time, he still considers King to be a personal hero, but sees him now in more of a complex light.
“Ever since I started the march I felt like I grew a lot and actually learned more about who he was,” Plante said. “Back when I was little, he was this person that helps a lot of people and that’s why I liked him. And now that I’ve grown and I know who he was, what he did, how many challenges he had to go through, how many times he was jailed for what he did, how many times he was beaten and how many times he kept getting up again to keep going. He’s always been a great person in my life but now that I know more about who he was and what he did, he’s just an even bigger inspiration to me.”
Plante said he does not just see the march as a celebration of King’s legacy but also as an inspiration for future action. He said he sees racism as an ongoing problem even after segregation — Plante points to kids of different races being able to go to the same school, but worries that racism persists within the schools, where kids can be picked on for being different. Plante takes MLK’s message of peace as vital in today’s world and said he hopes that the march is able to help at least a little in solving the problem.
“People have come up to me, or they’ve messaged me on Facebook through the MLK page. They tell me what a great thing it is and how much it’s impacting others. I know it’s impacting some people. I don’t know if it’s necessarily solving any problems but it’s getting 250 to 300 people that come — my goal is that they take something from it, they spread it in their community, with their family, their friends and then they could spread it and just keep it going. I feel like it’s solving a little bit of the problem. It’s not going to solve all racism and all peace problems but it’s a baby step to get towards that goal.”
One of those people inspired by Plante is Camp Verde Middle School student Eva Olson, who won this year’s essay competition for writing about her work volunteering in the elementary school and working with teachers. She thanked the people in her community that had helped her, including her teachers, but also thanked Chandler himself.
“Every year after the march I have multiple people come up to me and thank me for what I do,” Plante said. “They say it was really an inspiration to them. It surprises me how many people come up to me and say that but it also motivates me to keep the march going.”
Jon Hecht can be reached at 634-8551, or email jhecht@larsonnewspapers.com
