There can be no question that the size of the crowd at Elephant’s Fork Elementary School on Friday evening was significantly smaller than on the National Mall on Aug. 28, 1963, when the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I have a dream” speech to an estimated 250,000.

But the message is no less important this week than it was more than 53 years ago, and 30 students in the Communities in Schools program at Elephant’s Fork brought the speech to life on Friday evening before a group of a few dozen parents, teachers and friends.

“I do believe that when children know where they come from, they’ll start to make better choices,” said Iris Mathis-Spellman, site coordinator for Communities in Schools.

“We live in a world where we are trying to make changes,” she continued. “Children need to know why Dr. King did what he did.”

The 30 students rehearsed the program for about four months, Mathis-Spellman said. She split a large portion of King’s speech into lines for the children, who recited them from memory.

“I enjoyed saying his dream,” said Robert Lockhart, an 8-year-old who is in the third grade. “I feel like it’s special.”

Jada Reed, who is 10 and in the fifth grade, said she liked her line: “So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!”

She said it wasn’t difficult to memorize her line.

When every student had recited his or her line, the students joined in for the final line: “Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

Mathis-Spellman said the event helped achieve the ideals of King’s dream.

“This is what Martin Luther King would have wanted,” she said. “He would have wanted all of us to unite.”

Communities in Schools is in eight schools in Hampton Roads, with Elephant’s Fork being the only one in Suffolk. The organization’s model positions site coordinators inside schools to assess students’ needs and provide resources to help them succeed.

The organization also partners with local businesses, agencies, health care providers and volunteers to help meet needs within the schools.

For more information, visit cisofhamptonroads.org.