Movies, books and discussions are among the activities on the North Olympic Peninsula this weekend.
For information about the Playwrights’ Festival in Port Townsend — where new plays and works-in-progress will debut — and other arts and entertainment events, see Peninsula Spotlight, the Peninsula Daily News’ weekly entertainment guide, in today’s print edition.
Other events are in the “Things to Do” calendar, available online at www.peninsuladailynews.com.
PORT ANGELES
Novelist discussion
PORT ANGELES — Novelist J.A. Jance will highlight her new book, Left for Dead, in a free discussion today.
At 7 p.m. in the Raymond Carver Room at the Port Angeles Library, 2210 S. Peabody St., Jance will talk about her mystery novel, which features Ali Reynolds and her friend Sister Anselm as investigators of Mexican drug-cartel-related homicides.
Admission is free, but early arrival is advised since Jance has a devoted following here.
For information, phone the sponsor, Port Book and News, at 360-452-6367.
Royalty bake sale
PORT ANGELES — The 2011 Clallam County Fair Royalty and 2012 Royalty candidates will hold a bake sale at Swain’s, 602 E. First St., from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday.
All proceeds will go into the scholarship fund and help pay the expenses for running the program.
Clallam County Fair Royalty is a scholarship-based program that helps promote the fair in the county as well as in neighboring communities.
Tickets for this year’s Princess Tea on Saturday, April 14, also will be for sale.
For more information on the fair Royalty program or if you wish to donate or sponsor the program, phone Christine Paulsen at 360-452-8262.
Monday Musicale
PORT ANGELES — Joel Yelland will present “Arias and Broadway” at a Monday Musicale event Monday.
The event will be held in the St. Anne’s room at Queen of Angels Catholic Church, 209 W. 11th St., at noon.
Cost is $11, with proceeds going to scholarships for local high school music students.
Family Flicks set
PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles Library, 2210 S. Peabody St., will present the movie “Chicken Run” at 2 p.m. Saturday as part of its Family Flicks series.
Every third Saturday of the month through June, the Family Flicks movie series at the library presents beloved children’s movie classics, discussion and popcorn.
“Chicken Run” was the first feature-length claymation film made by Aardman Animations Studios of “Wallace and Gromit” fame.
A blend of adventure and comedy, G-rated “Chicken Run” will delight audiences of all ages.
This program is free and open to the public.
For more information, phone the Port Angeles Library at 360-417-8502, email Youth@nols.org or visit www.nols.org.
Forum scheduled
PORT ANGELES — The first public forum for the Washington Institute of Natural Sciences, a private nonprofit organization, will be held in Port Angeles on Saturday.
Cardiologist Dr. Vincent Shu, a proponent of the institute, seeks to establish a molecular, cellular and genetic research laboratory; a botanical and medicinal herb research garden; and a life science and bioengineering library and education center.
The forum will be at 4:30 p.m. at the Port Angeles Library, 2210 S. Peabody St.
A Sequim forum will be at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 25, at the Sequim Library, 630 N. Sequim Ave.
Shu will moderate the events, which will attempt to answer the question: “Can we reshape our future and develop the careers of our children to solve the growing national issues of health care, the environment and green energy?”
For more information, email vshu@wins-medicine.org or phone 866-651-0544.
Online training set
PORT ANGELES — Social Security experts from the Seattle Public Affairs office will talk about Social Security programs and demonstrate the latest online services available at www.socialsecurity.gov at two events today.
A presentation will be held at the Port Angeles Library, 2210 S. Peabody St., from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Another presentation will be held at the Sequim Library, 630 N. Sequim Ave., from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
The experts will answer questions from the audience after the presentation.
Anti-biomass meet
PORT ANGELES — Former Port Townsend Mayor Kees Kolff will speak against biomass energy at a meeting hosted by other biomass opponents.
“Biomass: Bad for Your Health and Local Economy,” co-sponsored by the Healthy Air Clallam Coalition and the Earth Heart Foundation, will start at 7 p.m. today at Olympic Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 73 Howe Road, Port Angeles.
Kolff, who also is a retired pediatrician and public health professional, is the Jefferson Biomass Committee chairman for the Sierra Club’s North Olympic Group.
Biomass energy is produced by burning wood debris from logging sites and wood waste from sawmills.
Two North Olympic Peninsula mills — Port Townsend Paper Corp. and Nippon Paper Industries USA — have biomass project expansions in the works.
Both projects have been opposed by a consortium of environmental groups, including the North Olympic Group of the Sierra Club.
Among other objections, the groups said biomass energy production creates several air pollutants, including dioxins.
For more information, phone Crystal Tack at 360-683-0652.
SEQUIM
Movie music
DUNGENESS — “Movies and Their Music” will continue this weekend at the Dungeness Schoolhouse, 2781 Towne Road.
The revue opened last weekend and continues for three more performances this weekend at the Dungeness Schoolhouse, 2781 Towne Road.
Performances are at 7:30 p.m. today and Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday.
Tickets are $15 each or two for $25 if purchased in advance at Pacific Mist Books, 121 W. Washington St., Sequim, or Odyssey Books, 114 W. Front St., Port Angeles. At the door, general admission will be $15.
“Movies and Their Music,” with its ensemble of vocalists, select skits from classic movies and narrator Pat Owens, is 90 minutes of stories in song.
Presented by Readers Theatre Plus, which stages dramatic and musical events to benefit various local charities, it is a lighthearted trip into cinematic history, with Academy Award-winning songs and movie scenes chosen from the 1940s through the ’60s.
All proceeds will benefit the Sequim-Shiso Sister City Association, which promotes cultural exchange between Sequim and Shiso, Japan.
‘The Spitfire Grill’
SEQUIM — The final weekend of performances of “The Spitfire Grill” are this weekend.
Curtaintime for the musical is 7:30 p.m. today and Saturday and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Olympic Theatre Arts, 414 N. Sequim Ave.
Tickets are $11.50 for students 16 and younger, $24.50 for OTA members and active military service members, and $26.50 for general admission.
The show is set in Gilead, Wis., the rural outpost where the bus drops off Percy Talbott, a single woman fresh out of prison.
The woman needs a job, so she dives into cooking and waiting tables at the Spitfire Grill.
Through her eyes, the townspeople see themselves in a new light.
Tickets are available at www.OlympicTheatreArts.org or 360-683-7326.
Blogs discussed
SEQUIM — Sequim Gazette staff will present “Exploring the Blog-o-Sphere” at the Sequim Library, 630 N. Sequim Ave., at 3 p.m. Saturday.
Editor Michael Dashiell and reporters Matthew Nash and Amanda Winters will lead the discussion, part of the library’s Celebrate Authorship series.
They will speak on how to start a blog, find a niche, bookmark and follow notable blogs.
For more information, visit www.nols.org or phone 360-683-1161.
Benefit dinner set
SEQUIM — Puget Sound Anglers-North Olympic Peninsula Chapter will hold its annual spaghetti dinner fundraiser at the Guy Cole Convention Center at Carrie Blake Park in Sequim today.
The event, which provides funding for the Olympic Peninsula Kids Fishing Program in Sequim, was rescheduled after January’s snowstorm forced postponement.
Doors will open at 4:30 p.m., with a free spaghetti dinner starting at 5:30 p.m. Donations will be accepted.
A silent auction will be held throughout the night, and a live auction begins after dinner.
Live auction items include fishing trips with Peninsula river guides for salmon and steelhead, and charter boat trips for salmon, halibut and bottomfish in the ocean and Strait of Juan de Fuca.
The Olympic Peninsula Kids Fishing Program includes Kids Fishing Day, which will be held Saturday, May 19, at the Sequim water reclamation pond.
The pond is stocked with 1,500 trout, some of which weigh as much as five pounds.
For more information on the events, phone Herb Prins at 360-582-0836.
Meet the Breed
SEQUIM — A presentation on bloodhounds is planned at Best Friend Nutrition on Saturday.
The program from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the business at 680 W. Washington St., Suite B-102, is the first in a new monthly program, “Meet the Breed.”
The program is designed to allow members of the public to interact with some of the less well-known dog breeds and learn more about how to be responsible owners of unique breeds.
Averaging well in excess of 100 pounds, bloodhounds Ruckus, Tule and AU will be handled by their owners while visitors get the opportunity to meet, pet and learn more about these mild-mannered, kind and patient scent hounds.
Children must be accompanied by adults. Other dogs are not invited.
Next month, the Leonberger breed will be the focus of “Meet the Breed” from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 17.
On April 14, the Shiba Inu breed from Japan will be featured.
For more information, phone 360-681-8458.
Thrift shop open
SEQUIM — The Sequim-Dungeness Hospital Guilds Thrift Shop, Second and Bell streets, will be open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.
All white-tagged items will be marked at half price.
The shop will feature winter clothing for ladies, children and men; home and kitchen accessories; furniture; and jewelry.
Volunteers continue to be needed at the shop.
For more information, phone 360-683-7044.
Grange breakfast
SEQUIM — Sequim Prairie Grange will host a breakfast Sunday.
The breakfast will be from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the grange hall at 290 Macleay Road.
The meal will include ham, eggs, all the pancakes you can eat and juice.
Cost is $5 for adults, $3 for ages 10 and younger.
For more information, phone 360-681-4189.
Pruning lectures
SEQUIM — Chris Sexton-Smith will discuss fruit tree pruning during two free presentations at McComb Gardens on Saturday.
The presentations will be at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. at the nursery at 751 McComb Road.
Sexton-Smith, a certified professional horticulturist and a licensed pesticide applicator, is an instructor of horticulture at Lake Washington Technical College.
He has a degree in ecology and is a proponent of an organic/nonchemical approach to gardening.
To register, phone McComb Gardens at 360-681-2827.
Tatting demo set
SEQUIM — The Museum & Arts Center in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley will present a free tatting demo with a trio of artists Saturday.
Fumie Gage, Carol Hoyt and Lynda Rathmann will demonstrate the intricate, handcrafted art of tatting from 10 a.m. to noon at the MAC Exhibit Center, 175 W. Cedar St.
The event is free and open to the public.
Tatting is a technique by which thread is used to form a durable lace by constructing series of knots and loops using a shuttle.
Examples of tatting projects range from making doilies, jewelry and baby booties, to decorative pieces such as bookmarks and place card edgings.
As part of the demo, each artist will work on tatting projects at various stages of completion and will display samples of finished works.
For more information, visit the MAC website at www.macsequim.org or phone the MAC Exhibit Center at 360-683-8110.
Bunco benefit set
SEQUIM — A bunco game fundraiser will be held at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 525 N. Fifth Ave., at noon today.
Sponsored by the Sequim Guild to benefit Seattle Children’s Hospital, this is a fundraiser to help pay medical costs for children of families in need.
A donation of $12 is requested.
Sandwiches, salads and desserts will be served along with prizes, and a silent auction will be held.
Raffle tickets will be on sale for $5 per ticket for a chance to win Wallace “Silversmith” china, gold plume pattern.
It includes service for 12, plus serving pieces.
The entire set is valued at $600.
The raffle drawing will be held in May, and ticket holders need not be present to win.
For more information, email Buncosqguild@Hotmail.com or phone 360-797-7105.
‘Backyard Birding’
SEQUIM — A “Backyard Birding” preparation session will be held at the Dungeness River Audubon Center, 2151 W. Hendrickson Road, from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday.
Attendees will learn how to participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count today through Tuesday.
Participants will tally birds at Railroad Bridge Park, then learn how to enter those results in the bird count database.
Cost is $5 for those 18 and older.
PORT TOWNSEND/JEFFERSON COUNTY
AAUW meeting
PORT TOWNSEND — Naval Magazine Indian Island environmental manager Bill Kalina will present “The Secret Life of Indian Island” at a meeting of the American Association of University Women of Port Townsend on Saturday.
Current and prospective members are welcome at the meeting at Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 2333 San Juan Ave.
A silent auction will be held from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m., with the meeting running from 10 a.m. to 11:15 a.m.
A silent auction wrap-up will follow from 11:15 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Kalina will fill in some of the blanks in the knowledge of the quiet little island that sits just across the water from Port Townsend as he shares his many experiences.
He has served in his position for 17 years and is well-versed in the history of Indian Island.
He has conducted public tours of the island since 1997.
AAUW membership is open to those who hold an associate degree or higher from an accredited institution.
For more information, email porttownsend@aauw-wa.org or visit www.aauwpt.org.
Gardening tips
PORT TOWNSEND — Gardening author Willi Galloway will share tips from her new book, Grow Cook Eat: A Food Lover’s Guide to Vegetable Gardening, at a lecture Saturday.
The event, part of the Washington State University Jefferson County Master Gardeners’ Yard & Garden Lecture Series, will be held at the Port Townsend Community Center, 620 Tyler St., at 10 a.m.
Tickets are $10 at the door.
Galloway started her career with Organic Gardening magazine before moving to Seattle in 2003.
She has become an active participant in the urban agriculture movement and earned her Master Gardener certification in 2004.
Galloway has served for six years on the board of directors of Seattle Tilth, a nationally recognized nonprofit that teaches people to cultivate a healthy urban environment and community by growing organic food.
Genealogical event
CHIMACUM — Carol Buswell will address “Looking for Answers in the 1940 U.S. Census” at a meeting of the Jefferson County Genealogical Society on Saturday.
The meeting, which is free and open to the public, will be at 9:30 a.m. at the Tri-Area Community Center, 10 West Valley Road.
Buswell is an education specialist for the National Archives Regional Facility in Seattle.
The 1940 Census will be released April 2; however, it will not be immediately indexed.
Buswell will discuss how to search for people in the meantime, what questions were asked on the 1940 Census, where to view census records and when they will be available online.
For more information, visit www.wajcgs.org.
Education series
PORT TOWNSEND — The National Alliance on Mental Illness of Jefferson County will offer a Family to Family education course starting Saturday.
This free class will meet from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. each Saturday for 12 weeks.
Course work is designed to help family members and significant others who have an adult loved one diagnosed with mental illness.
Each week, a different topic will be presented by trained co-facilitators who have taken the course themselves and understand the challenges and questions other family members have encountered while trying to gain information and emotional support for themselves.
For more information, phone 360-379-9949 or 360-379-4735.
Ancestor hunting?
CHIMACUM — Genealogist Deanna Dowell will discuss old and new sources of information for those hunting for ancestors of Norwegian ancestry when she speaks Sunday.
The meeting, sponsored by the Daughters of Norway Thea Foss Lodge No. 45, will be at 1 p.m. at the Tri-Area Community Center, 10 West Valley Road.
Dowell will have handouts for attendees.
Scandinavian refreshments will be served.
The meeting is free and open to the public.
For more information, phone 360-379-1802.
Historic walking tours
PORT TOWNSEND — Historic walking tours of downtown Port Townsend will be offered Monday.
These tours — free, courtesy of the Jefferson County Historical Society — will begin at 2 p.m. at the historical society museum at 540 Water St.
Volunteer guides will give the one-hour tours rain or shine, he added.
The strolls are part of the “Light at the End of the Tunnel” campaign, Tennent said.
A joint marketing effort by the city and the Port Townsend Main Street program, “Light” is designed to bring people downtown despite the sidewalk and tunnel construction work to begin Monday.
Usually the tours are a summertime thing, given from June through September.
The construction work starting this month is the first phase of a four-month sidewalk and street improvement project between Water and Washington streets.
The nearly $2 million project, funded by the city, also will fortify hazardous, unreinforced lids of tunnels to the shops below street level.
For more details about the walking tours and other Jefferson County Historical Society offerings, phone 360-385-1003.
Conference of birds
PORT TOWNSEND — “The Conference of the Birds,” a youth theater work, will be performed tonight.
The actors, from Port Townsend’s Individualized Choice Education, or ICE, program, will perform at 7 p.m. at the Mountain View Commons, 1925 Blaine St.
A flock of 22 actors, from kindergartners up through ninth-graders, are portraying the birds of the world.
They’re searching for their one true king, as well as a solution to their world’s problems.
Admission is a suggested donation of $10 for adults and $5 for children, though no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
To find out more, phone 360-344-3435.
FORKS/WEST END
Relay kickoff set
FORKS — A kickoff for the 2012 American Cancer Society’s Forks Relay For Life is planned Sunday.
A day of bingo, food and relay planning is on the agenda from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Forks Elks Lodge, 941 Merchants Road.
The 2012 Forks Relay For Life will be held at Spartan Stadium at Forks High School from 3 p.m. Friday, Aug. 3, to 3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 4.
The Survivors Lap will be held at 6 p.m. and the lighting of luminaria will be held at 10 p.m.
Closing ceremonies will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday.
The fundraising goal for 2012 is $32,000. Last year, $29,000 was raised.
For more information, visit www.relayforlifeofforks.org.