The Jan. 15 birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will be observed Monday with a federal holiday.
The day is also a day of service for many.
Among the observances planned on the North Olympic Peninsula on Monday are the following.
AmeriCorps quilts
PORT ANGELES — North Olympic AmeriCorps members will team up with local students and community members to build “dream quilts” to commemorate the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr.
The public is invited to participate in the project from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Vern Burton Community Center, 308 E. Fourth St.
At 2:30 p.m., Port Angeles City Councilman Pat Downie will discuss “The Power of Continuing Service in our Community.”
Quilts will be displayed at various schools and businesses throughout Port Angeles.
Refreshments will be provided.
For more information, email Andrew Rahal at andrew.rahal@gmail.com.
MLK celebration
PORT TOWNSEND — A celebration of the life of Martin Luther King Jr. will be held at Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 2333 San Juan Ave., starting at 10:30 a.m.
Members of the fellowship’s children’s choir will open the program by singing “We Shall Overcome,” a protest song that became a key anthem of the civil rights movement.
Other presenters include poet Gary Copeland Lilley; Colleen Johnson, who will speak about white privilege; Diane Bommer, who will address economic injustice; Libby Palmer, who will discuss current immigration issues; and Joseph Bednarik, who will speak on service and community.
The PT Songlines community choir will sing, and the Poetic Justice Ensemble will perform.
There will also be activities, a time to share, refreshments and an opportunity to draft letters.
There is no admission charge for the event, but participants are asked to bring donations for the Port Townsend Food Bank or the Working Image program, which provides work wear to people in need.
‘Beloved Community’
PORT TOWNSEND — A film portraying examples of the ways in which Port Townsend is creating Martin Luther King’s ideal of a “beloved community” will be screened Monday.
The film created by Jefferson Community School students will be shown at 11 a.m. at the Cotton Building, 607 Water St., Port Townsend.
It is open to the public. A donation to support this and other films is welcome but not required.
Students at the private school asked people in town to talk about the concept of community and why they think King’s birthday has been designated as a day of service.
With the help of Jane Champion, Port Townsend Film Institute board chairwoman, and Andrew Burke, an independent videographer — both instructors at the school — the students filmed the responses and created “The Beloved Community.”
“King’s dream went beyond the civil rights movement,” said Paulette Lack, head of Jefferson Community School.
“It’s his idea of the beloved community that we are teasing out,” she explained, saying his concept was of “communities being self-sustaining and working together to share resources.”
The students “found examples of how we are creating that beloved community,” Lack said.
The idea for the film, said Lack, came from Sheila Ramsey, AmeriCorps volunteer coordinator for Olympic Community Action Programs.
“She approached me, and it fit perfectly with what we do at the school,” Lack said, adding that Fridays are always a day of service at the school, which has 30 students.
Additional funding support came from the Port Townsend Arts Commission.
For more information about Jefferson Community School, which serves students in seventh through 12th grades, visit www.jeffersoncommunityschool.com.
