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Santa Barbara, CA. (December 2025) – Each year since 2020, The Riviera Ridge School has invited students to reflect upon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy in the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Committee Writing Contest. This year, a record number of ten Riviera Ridge School students will be recognized for their thoughtful writing honoring Dr. King at the 18th annual celebration at the Arlington Theater on Monday, January 19.
As part of the Riviera Ridge School’s Kaleidoscope Program, which explores service learning, ethical leadership, and the philosophy and understanding of world religions, students from grades 4-8 take part in this contest open to students throughout SB County. The Committee asks them to think about a specific quote and they can choose to respond with a poem or an essay. This year’s theme was based on Dr. King’s words concerning leadership: “We need leaders not in love with money, but in love with justice; not in love with publicity, but in love with humanity.”-August 11, 1956.
“The primary goal of this learning initiative is to connect the Kaleidoscope 4-8 classrooms in engaging with the Santa Barbara community,” Riviera Ridge’s JK-8th Grade Kaleidoscope Specialist, Kari Eiler, said. “It also helps them to think deeply about how Dr. King’s teachings speak to them personally and how they can be applied to our world today.”…