Martin Luther King Jr. will be remembered during assemblies and community service this weekend and Monday.
King’s birthday will be celebrated Monday. The civil rights leader was assassinated in 1968.
Here are events on the North Olympic Peninsula:
Fees waived
Olympic National Park and Olympic National Forest will offer free admission Monday in honor of the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr.
The fee-free day is the first of the year for both the park and the national forest.
Olympic National Park’s regular entrance fee is $25 per car. On fee-free days, other park fees, including wilderness camping and campground fees, remain in effect. The Olympic National Park annual pass costs $50.
For more information about senior, access and military passes that provide free entry, visit www.nps.gov/olym/planyourvisit/fees.htm.
The national forest fee waiver is for day-use recreation sites. Fees for camping, cabin and lodge room rentals, or other permits, still apply.
For more information, see www.fs.usda.gov/olympic.
Other fee-free days shared by both entities will be Feb. 20, Presidents Day; Sept. 30, National Public Lands Day; and Nov. 11-12, Veterans Day Weekend.
The park also will waive entrance fees April 15-16 and 22-23, the weekends of National Park Week, and Aug. 25 for the National Park Service Birthday.
The national forest also will waive entrance fees June 3 for National Trails Day and June 10 for National Get Outdoors Day.
PORT ANGELES
School assembly
PORT ANGELES — Darrell Thomas, a hip-hop artist who works with homeless youths, will be the featured speaker at Stevens Middle School during its assembly to honor Martin Luther King Jr.’s memory at 2 p.m. today.
The assembly, “Remembering the Past, Shaping the Future,” will be in the main gym of the school at 1139 W. 14th St.
Community members are invited to attend.
King’s life as a civil rights leader will be remembered during the assembly through video presentations, musical presentations and student presentations. King was assassinated April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tenn.
Thomas, the Street Hope manager at The Coffee Oasis in Bremerton, works with homeless and at-risk youths in Kitsap County.
His story of redemption and overcoming the street life that many youths experience, willingly or not, has given him the ability to connect with many young people.
As a hip-hop artist, he goes by the name of Smiley D.
Thomas will talk about how King influenced his life.
At the assembly, the Port Angeles High School NJROTC will present the colors and both the national anthem and “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” a song often referred to as the Black American National Anthem, will be sung.
Videos will recount King’s life and feature his famous speech, “I Have a Dream.”
Performances are planned by the Stevens Middle School Orchestra and the Stevens Middle School Jazz Band.
For more information, contact Assistant Principal Miriam Ransom by phone at 360-565-1781 or email mransom@portangelesschools.org.
PORT TOWNSEND
Work weekend
PORT TOWNSEND — The Sound Experience invites the public to take part in a Winter Work Weekend on the schooner Adventuress to honor Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy of service.
Volunteers are invited for the day or to stay the whole weekend, Saturday through Monday, at the Point Hudson Marina, 200 Jackson St.
Sound Experience organizers hope volunteers will help spread the message of “we are all shipmates” as they work together to prepare the Adventuress for another year of sailing and inspiring the public about Puget Sound.
All experience levels are welcome.
Meals are provided. For those staying overnight, a limited number of bunks are available on a first-request basis.
For information, contact Korie at Sound Experience, 360-379-0438 or email korie@soundexp.org.
MLK service project
PORT TOWNSEND — Volunteers will spread mulch at Blue Heron Middle School’s orchard from 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday as a Martin Luther King Jr. service project.
Volunteers are sought for the work at the school at 3939 San Juan Ave., spreading 50 yards of mulch and caring for 70 fruit trees at Blue Heron’s orchard.
Organizers ask volunteers to bring 5-gallon buckets, a shovel, a rake, a wheelbarrow, flattened cardboard, gloves, water and snacks.
Additionally, for those who aren’t able to move mulch, help with signing people in is needed.
Donations of non-cedar wood chips or contributions toward purchasing mulch are accepted.
For more information, phone Seth at 360-379-0414 or email Sethrolland@gmail.com.
