Hundreds of community members of several different backgrounds and faiths gathered together at the second annual Martin Luther King Day Jr. Breakfast hosted by Prior Lake High School and the Prior Lake Rotary Club on Monday at the high school to show unity, promote equity, and celebrate the community while embracing differences.

According to a press release from the district, guests were treated to a variety of multicultural breakfast items, prayer readings from Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Native American and Muslim faiths, a rendition of “He Had a Dream,” performed by the Prior Lake High School Choir and a Native American Spiritual Hand Drum Performance by Kendell DeCoteu.

The audience was also captivated by keynote speaker Jurgis Didžiulis, an inspirational artist who provided the crowd with a unique mix of music, comedy and academic insight meant to help create more meaningful interpersonal connections. To end the program, PLHS Black Student Union President Eden Alemu and other PLHS students recited an excerpt from King’s “I Have a Dream’’ speech, according to the press release.

Sam Ouk, Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools Director of Equity and Inclusion, said over 600 people attended the event that was also in combination with a staff inservice day.

“We printed 300 programs and we ran out. We had a little over 600 people there,” Ouk said. “Overall, it was a community event that I think really included the whole community. Because it was also a teacher’s inservice day, there were close to 300 people in the auditorium listening to different prayers. We had representation from Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Native American spiritual beliefs. I did a reading from my Buddhist background as well.”

Ouk said all the speakers shared a common message about peace and unity.

“The keynote speaker was amazing,” Ouk said. “His key message was that our diversity and our differences is what brings meaning to unity to our community. Celebrating and recognizing our diversity and individuality is what makes the world beautiful.”

Different student diversity organizations were well represented, Ouk said.

“We had different representation from different student groups,” he said. “The president of the Black Student Union started it off. We also had members of our Native American Student Coalition, Muslim Student Association and our student council along with two members of our Asian Student Association represented.”

Ouk added that the event was an astonishing success and looks forward to more in the future. “It was a day where the whole community did come together and I’m going to be talking about this day for a long time,” he said.