“Each of us has a mandate over our life … a purpose,” guest speaker Sareeta Spriggs said as she urged the nearly 100 attendees at Sunday’s Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration to roll up their sleeves and get to work.

The annual King Day service, sponsored by the Mathews Chapter NAACP, was held at Antioch Baptist Church in Susan. The program featured several musical selections by the Zion Baptist Church Combined Choir from Cardinal.

Spriggs, who serves as Deputy Director of Operations and Finance in the Washington, D.C. Mayor’s Office, said she didn’t come to speak in her official capacity. “I’m just Sareeta from Mathews, y’all,” she said.

The 1995 Mathews High School graduate and daughter of Donnie and Faye Spriggs of Cardinal, said that she struggled over several themes before finally settling on a topic for Sunday’s program.

“Only thing I came up with is ‘You got work to do,’” she said.

Spr...