Each table had paper tents with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. quotes on each side, along with cards from the We Are One World Foundation.
Despite the freezing temperatures outside, attendees turned out and filled almost every seat in the Zappala Campus Center Square room at La Roche University to hear Dr. Angela Reynolds proclaim this year's Martin Luther King Jr. Day to be "a day of recommitment and a purposeful decision to not give up hope."
Why? Because we are all "interwoven and interconnected" in what King called a "garment of destiny," said Reynolds in her keynote address to the 25th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Unity Breakfast on Jan. 20.
Reynolds, who has a doctorate in public policy analysis, is CEO of the YWCA of Greater Pittsburgh.
When contemplating this year's theme for the breakfast -- "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" -- Reynolds said she was drawn to the next words of King's "Letter From Birmingham Jail" that the theme came from: "We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny."
Reflecting on these words, Reynolds couldn't help but think of her childhood and her parents, who were civil rights activists during the 1950s and '60s. She recalled listening to King's speeches on an 8-track tape and hearing her mother's stories of organizing sit-ins in Augusta, Ga.
"Those memories and those reflections are interwoven into the fabric of my being and who I am. It's also woven into my place in, as Dr. King puts it, the 'single garment of destiny,' " Reynolds said. "My destiny was to be in this room at this time, with all of you, looking out on this wonderful, beautiful tapestry of diversity along so many dimensions. We're one step closer to the fulfillment of Dr. King and my parents' dream."
Reynolds explained that "to realize the vision and the fulfillment of the dream, we might have to wear our garment for a while."
"You don't have to mind wearing it for a while because it never goes out of style," Reynolds said. "The message of hope, the message of peace, the message of fighting for justice is still the same. It's still relevant today. It has not gone out of style. ... It is not time-locked to 1963."
Indeed, young people did their part in reflecting on the breakfast's theme, too, as evidenced by the three essay award winners.
According to Sarah White, La Roche's University executive director for inclusion and belonging, the Unity Breakfast organizing committee "asked the students to think about how that quoted passage applies to the world today and to let those thoughts guide their submissions."
James Hogue from Riverside Beaver County School District, who uses a wheelchair, won first place for his essay about how the sidewalks outside his school had to be fixed because they were wheelchair-inaccessible.
Second place went to Anastasia Beridze from Northgate High School, who wrote about drug pricing and medication. Third place went to Nadege Elijah Niyonyishu, also from Northgate High School, who wrote about how the pollution released by the Shenango Coke Works affected the communities in that area.
In conducting the closing prayer, the Rev. Dr. Ron Hoellein from St. Paul's United Methodist Church was sure to direct the guests' attention to another attendee, Beth Foringer from CeaseFirePA, because "gun violence is indiscriminate."
Foringer, the Southwest Pennsylvania coordinator for the gun violence prevention organization, said as someone who has attended the Unity Breakfast for the past four or five years, she has seen it grow in both the number of attendees and the range of social issues addressed by the nonprofit presentations.
This year, the nonprofit presenters included Liz Mims from Dress for Success Pittsburgh, Tony Sciulli from North Hills Cares and Tom Baker from Variety, the Children's Charity.
Foringer also connected with the breakfast's theme this year, relating it to the work CeaseFirePA does.
"CeaseFirePA's work is to help strike up conversations with communities like we're in today, about just how far-reaching the violence is in our own lives, in our own communities, no matter where you're from," Foringer said.
State Rep. Arvind Venkat, D-Allegheny, also attended the breakfast, which he said he loves attending for its celebration of "the diversity in our community."
"Also because it really sends a message about, while we've made progress, there is still so much work to do to make sure that we fulfill Dr. King's dream," Venkat said. "Certainly, I try to do that part. I'm always humbled to see everyone here who's doing amazing things."