News Photo by Julie Riddle Alpena fourth-grader Briana Stewart introduces a puppy to family friend Sarah Wetherhult at the Huron Humane Society on Monday. Moved by a Martin Luther King Jr.-inspired “I Have a Dream” speech written by Stewart, Wetherhult donated money to help shelter animals.

ALPENA — Briana Stewart loves animals.

“I bet there is more than a thousand pets that are not adopted,” the 9-year-old Besser Elementary School fourth-grader wrote last week in an essay inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

Teacher Gretchen Rea, who most weeks leads lessons in math, science, and literature, took time last week to delve into the life of King.

The class read about King’s upbringing and the Nobel Peace Prize he was awarded in 1964.

They watched his “I Have a Dream” speech and discussed tough terms like racism, segregation, nonviolent protests, and civil rights.

The 9- and 10-year-old students looked at photos of “Whites Only” signs and, Rea recounted, just couldn’t believe that grownups would treat others so unfairly.

Under our skin, we are all the same, she taught them: same brains, same hearts, same lungs.

We are all humans.

The history lesson puzzled Rea’s students. Discrimination and prejudice, in the eyes of a fourth-grader, just don’t make any sense.

When they learned King was assassinated, Rea said, they just couldn’t believe it.

Like many teachers in many classrooms in many towns across the country, Rea believes it’s crucial to keep King’s dream of equality and brotherhood alive through the children under their tutelage.

A classroom full of empathetic children has the power to continue King’s legacy of kindness, the teacher believes.

The students, inspired by King’s vision of universal kindness, made cards for family members and taped paper hearts to a Kindness Tree in a school hallway.

“I helped my PaPa shovel snow,” one heart read.

“I made my friend happy again when she was having a bad day,” said another.

Little acts papered the tree, little kindnesses, from children who believe their small actions can add up to a better world.

To follow up on the unit, Rea asked the children to write their own “I Have a Dream” speeches about how they would make the world a better place.

Students wrote about banning cigarettes and vaping, helping the homeless, and equal pay for men and women.

Stewart, with her love for animals, dreamed that all shelter animals would find a home.

“I need you to make my dream come true,” she addressed her imaginary audience. She suggested donations of food, water, toys, or money to help shelter animals.

“I don’t wanna see pets left at the shelter anymore,” she pleaded.

A family friend, reading the essay online and moved to tears by Sewart’s sensitive and caring request, donated $50 to her local animal shelter.

“Most fourth-graders aren’t thinking about that kind of stuff,” said the family friend, Sarah Wetherhult. “Kids do make a difference. And I wanted her to know that she could.”

Rea, touched as well by the domino effect of her lessons that resulted in the powerful act of one person doing one kind thing, was pleased to think a simple writing project would reach beyond the hallways of her school.

“My students have learned that they have the power to make our world a better place,” Rea said. “Even as a fourth-grade student.”

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693, jriddle@thealpenanews.com or on Twitter @jriddleX.