NEWS BRIEFS: Battle of the Books includes home-schoolers this year … and other items

EDITOR’S NOTE: This item has been updated to correct the starting time for the Blessing of the Animals at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Port Angeles.

The annual Battle of the Books program for local fourth-graders is now open to home-schooled students in Clallam County.

Registration for home-schoolers is due Tuesday, Oct. 24, and can be completed by visiting the youth department at the Port Angeles Library, 2210 S. Peabody St., or by calling 360-417-8500, ext. 7705.

Starting in October, staff will facilitate monthly book discussions for fourth-grade home-schooled participants between the ages of 9 and 10 at the library.

Participants will receive free copies of the book selections and a special competition T-shirt featuring original student artwork.

As a culmination to the program, teams of students from schools — in addition to a home-schooled team — will compete for a trophy Friday, March 16, at the library.

The final competition will include trivia questions about each book.

For more information, call 360-417-8500, ext. 7705; email youth@nols.org; or visit www.nols.org.

Unity speaker

PORT ANGELES — Unity in the Olympics’ 10:30 a.m. Sunday service speaker will be Karen King.

Her lesson at the church at 2917 E. Myrtle St. is titled “Receiving as Virtue: How to Center on Self and Avoid Burnout.”

King has served as a prayer associate in Silent Unity and marketing publicist for Unity Books, and is a licensed Unity teacher.

A time for silent meditation will be held from 10 a.m. to 10:15 a.m.

Child care is available during the service.

PlayGround classes

PORT ANGELES — A series of classes designed to nurture intuition will begin Saturday.

The Rev. Trisha Burson-Johnson will facilitate the classes at the Center for Spiritual Living Port Angeles, 254 N. Bagley Creek Road.

The cost is $10 per class or $50 for all six, which are held Saturdays until Nov. 11, excluding Oct. 14.

According to a news release: “We tend to rely more on our ‘intelligence’ and less on our ‘intuition,’ and yet our inner wisdom often guides us to the words and actions that can serve us best. Learn to tap into a more spontaneous and authentic expression of you.”

For more information, call 360-457-4801 or cslportangeles@gmail.com.

Animal blessings

PORT ANGELES — St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church will present the annual Blessing of the Animals at 2 p.m. Sunday.

All are welcome to the ecumenical service at The Gateway pavilion on the corner of Front Street and Lincoln Avenue.

A brief worship service will begin the event, after which blessings for individual pets will be held.

Donations of pet food, blankets, towels, paper towels and non-clumping cat litter will be collected during the event. Items will be donated to the Olympic Peninsula Humane Society.

For more information, call 360-457-4862.

Yom Kippur events

PORT ANGELES — The Congregation Olympic B’nai Shalom Yom Kippur schedule will begin today at 7 p.m.

The Kol Nidre service will be held at Olympic Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 1033 N. Barr Road.

On Saturday at 10 a.m., a morning Torah service will be held at the fellowship, after which a Torah study will occur at 2 p.m.

At approximately 4 p.m., Yizkor service will commence, with the concluding service at 5:30 p.m.

The Yizkor service “is an intensely mournful but meaningful ceremony. Because of the depth of emotion, it can also be disturbing to children, and children can disturb participants when they get antsy. Children may need supervision to remain quiet or to leave if upset,” event organizers said.

To finish off the day’s events, a break-the-fast dairy potluck will be held at 7 p.m.

For more information, call 360-452-2471 or 360-460-6003.

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