Gwen Ifill, senior correspondent for “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” and moderator and managing editor for “Washington Week,” will be the keynote speaker at a King breakfast at 7 a.m. Monday, a federal holiday.

Crispus Attucks Community Center will host the annual event at Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology, 750 E. King St.

Cost is $45. For tickets, call 394-4390.

The Southeast Area Positive Image Action Group will honor King and his life’s work with the 12th annual “Living the Dream” project on the theme of “A Day of Service, Not a Day Off.”

The project takes its name from King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech delivered at the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963.

Here’s a breakdown of the events the group is sponsoring:

They start Sunday with the second annual wreath-laying ceremony at the Martin Luther King Plaza on South Duke Street at 3 p.m.

On Monday, about 200 volunteers will work on 33 community service projects from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

The day of service will conclude with a “Thank You” luncheon at Crispus Attucks at 1 p.m.

For students, “Living the Dream” will offer a program on “The Immigrant Story: Pursuing the American Dream,” with speakers from Africa, Mexico and Russia, at Crispus Attucks Community Center, 407 Howard Ave., from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Monday.

Also, genealogist Fanny Murky will lead students in an exploration of their family roots in an activity sponsored by the Office of Social Equity at Millersville University.

For more information, call Carole LeFever at 392-2715 or Michael Gardener at 299-1065.

Bethel Harambee Historical Services, of Bethel AME Church, 512 Strawberry St., will begin honoring King on Saturday. Its four events are themed “Stony the Road We Trod.”

A Cultural Bazaar from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday will commemorate the spirit of community support for local artisans and entrepreneurs.

“Living the Experience,” an interactive Underground Railroad reenactment, with a “Hit the Spot” soul food meal, will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday. Special discounted cost is $20 or $10 for the show only. For advance tickets, call 509-1977, extension 113. Tickets also will be available at the door.

From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., the Hopkins Research and Study Center will offer a MLK exhibit, including videos of all his speeches.

The church will host the annual Downtown Ministerium’s MLK worship service at 7 p.m. Monday.

The service will be dedicated to Brianna Pratt, 7, who was shot in the back Thursday in the 400 block of Beaver Street and is in stable but critical condition at Hershey Medical Center.

Other local events honoring King are scheduled for the long weekend and beyond. They are:

A service hosted by the Lancaster branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 31 S. Duke, at 7 p.m. Sunday.

The Rev. Roland P. Forbes, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church of Lancaster, will speak on “Where are we in the Dream?”

The McCaskey Gospel and the Pennsylvania Academy of Music Children’s choirs will sing. A freewill offering will be accepted. For more information, call 293-7847.

St. John’s Episcopal Church, 321 W. Chestnut St., will celebrate the day with a party for neighborhood children in grades three to five from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday. It will include storytelling, games, dancing and drumming. Lunch will be served. Call 299-1188 to register.

Elizabethtown College will hold morning service projects. Academic panels will explore the life and legacy of King at 1:30, 2:45 and 4 p.m. in the James B. Hoover Center for Business.

A candlelight march, preceded by refreshments, will begin at 6:15 p.m. at the Student Center and end with a “Gospel Extravaganza” at Leffler Chapel. For more information, visit www.etown.edu.

Franklin & Marshall College will remember King in a vigil at the College Center from 7 to 9 p.m. Monday.

n!\qLater in the month, Millersville University will hold an MLK Celebration and Human Rights Symposium on “Humanity Interrupted” featuring a former King speech writer.

Vincent G. Harding, formerly with Mennonite Central Committee, will speak on “The Theology of Human Rights” in a Black Culture Celebration sponsored by the student chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in the Student Memorial Center at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 23.

Harding, professor emeritus of religion and social transformation at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, was the first director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center in Atlanta.

The university will observe a moment of remembrance of King at 11:45 a.m. Monday. The Old Main Bell will toll 39 times, for the number of years of King’s life.

King was born Jan. 15, 1929, and killed in Memphis, Tenn., on April 4, 1968.

CONTACT US: jkern@LNPnews.com or 481-6028

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