LAPUSH — The Quileute senior class will host a fundraising event at the A-Ka-Lat Center to teach and entertain Twilight fans from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday.
The event, which will cost $20 at the door at the community center in LaPush, will include traditional dancing and storytelling by Quileute elders as well as photo opportunities with tribal dancers in full regalia and Forks High School students in their gear, said Anna Penn-Charles, organizer the event.
The Quileute tribe plays a big part in “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” movie that will be released Friday.
In the movie, which is based on the second book in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight saga set in Forks and LaPush, Bella Swan, a klutzy Forks teenager, experiences heartbreak when her vampire boyfriend, Edward Cullen, leaves her.
Her best friend, Jacob Black — who is a werewolf — makes a bid for her heart.
The Quileute have a deep connection with wolves, and legends say that they were transformed into people from the wolf — but there are no werewolf legends.
In Meyer’s stories, though, some of the teenagers are transformed into werewolves in order to protect the people of Forks and LaPush as vampires occupy the area.
Saturday’s event is a fundraiser to support the Quileute Senior Safe Night for graduation night in June.
The June event is intended to encourage seniors to do something positive and not go to parties where there might be drinking or drugs.
“We have 19 students graduating — an all-time high number of graduates,” Penn-Charles said. “All of the proceeds of this event will support that.”
The Senior Safe night is for students who attend Forks High School, Forks Alternative School and the Quileute Tribal School.
Saturday’s festivities will include traditional dancing by several Quileute families, Penn-Charles said.
“We also have some beautiful traditional masks that Mary Leitka and Tom Baker will bring in,” she said.
“We also have Harold Charles Jr. bringing in his raven mask.”
Leitka, Baker and Charles are Quileute artists.
A highlight of the evening will be a young man who is not an enrolled Quinault tribal member but whose family is related to the Quileute, said Penn-Charles.
“When he announced that his name was none other than Jacob Black, we were so excited,” Penn-Charles said.
“We have a real Jacob Black that is related to the tribe.”
Penn-Charles said attendees will also automatically be entered to win some prizes.
“We want people to know that they aren’t just paying for the entertainment but they also have the possibility to win some really amazing prizes,” Penn-Charles said.
Memorabilia from Forks High School and the Quileute tribe will be among the prizes.
