| Gifts sought for King memorial By Melissa Lauber UMConnection Staff  Anita Wamble, of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project, has a dream. Wamble, a member of Grace UMC in Fort Washington, dreams of a time when her two children can visit a monument to the civil rights leader on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. As the projects major gift officer, she is working to make that $100 million dream a reality. This year will be a pivotal time in her efforts. In 1988, Congress approved plans developed by the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity for the monument, which will be situated on a four-acre site along the Tidal Basin. The site is adjacent to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial and on a direct line between the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials. Wamble calls it a visual line of leadership that links the principles of freedom from the founding fathers through the civil rights movement. The monument would be the first on the mall honoring an individual other than a president and the first to pay tribute to an African American, she said. The design, selected in 2000 in a bid that drew more than 900 submissions from 52 countries, was created by the ROMA group of San Francisco. It is based on the themes of justice, democracy and hope and will utilize water, stones and trees. Hope is a theme that greatly appeals to Wamble, a certified lay speaker and chairwoman of Christian education at Grace UMC. She points out that the civil rights movement was born and nurtured in pulpits. She explained that King often spoke of the stone of hope cast out of the mountain of despair. Portions of Kings sermons and speeches will be inscribed in the glistening, smooth surfaces of a water wall. A carving of King will appear as a part of the stone of hope. The carving will reveal Kings shape in a slow and artful way. According to materials on the projects Web site, Kings image will be seen looking across the Tidal Basin. He will be pointing with a pencil back to his words in The Promissory Note as if, having just written these words, he is now standing vigil and awaiting the delivery of the note. King spoke these words in Washington, D.C., in 1963: When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was the promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable Rights of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. In raising funds for the monument, Wamble feels that she is, in some small way, helping to collect on this debt. She left her job at the American Red Cross to raise funds, believing there were ideals of freedom involved in creating this touchstone of history. In todays economy, raising money for this project is not easy, she admits. To date, $25.4 million has been raised. Fifty million dollars is needed before ground is broken in November, Wamble said. By November 2006 all $100 million needs to be secured. Wambles task is to identify and work with contributors who pledge gifts of more than $100,000. To raise $25 million by November, thats where my faith comes in, she said. Looking at the economics, one might say we can never do it. But we need to look at it through eyes of faith. What man calls impossible. God calls possible. I believe this is something the Lord wants us to do. Raising the funds means contributing to Kings legacy, helping to keep alive the message that all people are equal in Gods sight, Wamble said. Its especially important for her to share this message with her children. Recent local surveys indicate that 97 percent of children can identify Martin Luther King Jr., Wamble said. However, 68 percent couldnt place him in the 1960s and one out of three couldnt identify him as a leader of the civil rights movement. On Kings birthday, Wamble teaches the students at her childrens school about their history. Its important that they know the shoulders of those they are standing on are wide, she said. Looking around the classroom, she said she notes white, black, Hispanic, Arab, Asian and children from other cultures all learning together. Its something that would never have occurred in Wambles childhood school in the 1970s. Thats part of Kings dream coming true and that dream needs a tangible monument, Wamble believes. As a nation we learn that without one another we wouldnt be able to get through life, she said. | 
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