Arctic weather forecast means some changes for Marade this year

With Monday is scheduled to be very cold—like single-digit-if-you’re-lucky cold—organizers of Marade, Denver’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day march/parade, shorten their program and encourage the most vulnerable to find ways to celebrate his legacy indoors.

The event starts half an hour later than originally planned; the unveiling ceremony at the base of the MLK Jr. statue in City Park has been pushed back to 10 a.m. Monday morning. From there, participants will follow a route that ends in Civic Center Park. The speaking programs in both parks will be shorter than originally planned.

Organizers are encouraging older people, children and those with ongoing health problems to skip the event this year. They also hope that the participants will leave their dogs at home and spare them from the cold.

“Due to weather conditions, individuals who wish to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in alternative ways may do so by volunteering at a local non-profit, helping neighbors, checking on seniors in your community, etc.” said Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Colorado Holiday Commission in a release Thursday.

To help those who come out stay safe while participating, event coordinators combat the cold by setting up warming stations along the Marade route.

According to Dr. Vern Howard, the chairman of the MLK Colorado Holiday Commission, terrible weather has never stopped people in Denver from marching on Dr. King’s birthday.

“We tried to cancel the Marade back in 1994 and to no avail because people still came out, they still marched. We had a very terrible snowstorm, one that we didn’t anticipate. People kept coming out anyway,” Howard recalled.” And so we learned then that this is the real people’s march, and it’s been the people’s march ever since.”

John Daley/CPR News

This year is bitter cold air expected to settle through the weekend, with high single-digit temperatures from Monday and wind chills making it feel significantly colder. Low temperatures for the I-25 corridor and Eastern Plains could drop to -10 to -20 degrees, with the coldest conditions expected Monday evening.

After an initial round of snow on Friday or Saturday, further accumulation is expected Sunday and Monday, with areas east of the Continental Divide experiencing the harshest conditions.

Although this year is more extreme than usual, cold weather has become part of the event’s tradition. Howard noted that the 2008 parade featured subzero temperatures, and the following year was even colder.

“We’ve learned that no matter how hard we think we’re going to cancel the march, it’s not going to happen,” Howard said.

Another tradition is to choose a theme for each year. This year’s is “Make the promise of democracy a reality.” By getting people to march, Howard hopes to remind everyone of their rights.

“What I’m most looking forward to is people being able to exercise their First Amendment rights by doing whatever Dr. King wants them to do,” Howard said. “We want people to understand the importance of coming out and exercising their right to assemble, their right to vote, their right to tell the people who we elect, what to do and how to do that because that is what the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution actually give us the right to do.”

Along with the march, the MLK Commission will distribute about 4,000 meals to people experiencing homelessness, as well as accept donations of non-perishable food, personal hygiene products, cold weather gear like coats and blankets and even old cell phones.

“The last time Dr. King came to Denver on May 21, 1967, he appointed Corky Gonzalez as the chairman of the Poor People’s Campaign in Colorado,” Howard said. “And what we’ve done (since) continues to build on that legacy.”

CPR’s Molly Cruse contributed reporting.