More than 50 kids, joined by parents and friends, marked Martin Luther King Jr. Day with a Children’s March for Peace and Kindness through downtown Winslow.

Organized by local schoolteacher Anne Willhoit, the day began at the Bainbridge Public Library with a letter-writing session. Kids wrote letters to elected leaders to ask them to work for peace.

More than 70 kids and their parents jammed into the community room to write letters, and more poured in the door just before the march to downtown was set to start at 10 a.m. Monday.

“This is amazing!” Willhoit said while looking over the crowd, adding that the publicity for the event was mostly word-of-mouth.

Willhoit said she hoped it would become an annual event.

“I’m just overwhelmed, and so happy,” she said.

Every table and chair in the community room was filled, and some kids and their parents sprawled out on the carpet to write letters. Some brought signs with slogans such as “Teach Peace,” “We are Equal” and “Hope Peace Love MLK.”

A few parents read to their kids who were finished with their letters, while waiting for the march to start, with books pulled from a cart filled with books about King and the Civil Rights Movement. Some softly sang, “We Shall Overcome.”

With letters and signs ready, the group marched down Madison Avenue and then through downtown Winslow to the post office to mail the letters.