To honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., a host of groups throughout the North Olympic Peninsula are taking the holiday weekend as a time for both work and fun.

The holiday is held on the Monday closest to King’s Jan. 15 birthday, so this Monday will be spent honoring the civil rights leader who was assassinated in 1968.

Groups throughout the Peninsula are offering volunteer opportunities, Olympic National Park is offering a fee-free weekend, and political groups will hold a rally to talk of what King likely would be concerned with if he were alive now.

All city and county government offices will be closed across the Peninsula on Monday.

AmeriCorps is hosting events in Port Angeles, Forks, Port Townsend and Chimacum.

Emily Kreidler, who is one of the coordinators for Olympic Peninsula units of the YMCA AmeriCorps, said the activities and community dinner are important ways to remember King.

“We wanted to have some kind of community service — to have a ‘day on’ not a ‘day off’ for Martin Luther King Jr. Day,” she said.

Jacques Livingston, director of the Olympic Peninsula YMCA AmeriCorps, said the events will build on past years’ activities.

For more information about any of the AmeriCorps activities or to donate to the group, phone 360-417-3697 or e-mail jacques@olympicpeninsulaymca.org.

Activities planned across the Peninsula this weekend, most Monday, are:

Port Angeles

• A Saturday rally, “Speak Out for Jobs, Justice and Peace,” will be held at noon in memory of King.

The rally at Veterans Park in Port Angeles at Third and Lincoln streets “is a Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday speakout,” said Lois Danks of Stop the Checkpoints, one of the organizers.

“If he were here today, he’d be speaking against the billions spent on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and saying the money is needed here . . . and he would be working with unions,” Danks said.

Numerous speakers will talk about racial profiling, education, corporate loopholes, state cutbacks in social services and women’s issues, Danks said.

A march led by the Service Employees International Union Local 775, which is scheduled at about 1 p.m., will go through downtown Port Angeles, and a vigil will be held at the state Department of Social and Health Services, 201 W. First St.

In addition to Stop the Checkpoints, organizers are Clallam Green Party, Olympic Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship, Veterans for Peace, SEIU, Port Angeles Radical Women and others. MoveOn.org also will participate, Danks said.

• Washington Conservation Corps will prepare a community garden to go in behind First Step at Fifth and Peabody streets Monday.

“We will be working between 10 a.m. and sundown, so bring your tools and come anytime,” said Diane Martin, a volunteer with Port Angeles Victory Gardens, the group that is working with the city of Port Angeles to establish the public garden.

For more details, phone 360-452-3192.

• A community dinner is free and open to the public from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Monday at First United Methodist and Congregational Church, 110 E. Seventh St., in Port Angeles.

“This will be a celebration dinner that is about community building as well,” Livingston said.

“It is both a free dinner for anyone who wants to partake in that, and we are bringing in service providers . . . who will be there to do some outreach as well educate what services are available.”

The dinner will feature Olympic Community Action Programs, Serenity House of Clallam County, United Way of Clallam County, First Step Family Support Center and Habitat for Humanity of Clallam County.

Those attending do not need to call ahead, just show up, Kreidler said, adding that the same goes for volunteering — just show up to participate.

• A project to help clean up a Serenity House building is planned between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Monday.

Volunteers will meet at the Tempest Building, 535 E. First St.

No more volunteers are needed.

• The North Olympic AmeriCorps program will hold its second annual Martin Luther King Day Quilt Making event at Roosevelt Elementary, 106 Monroe Road, from noon to 4 p.m. Monday.

AmeriCorps workers have asked elementary school students in Port Angeles to draw pictures that symbolize their dreams to benefit the community.

On Monday, volunteers will take those pictures and create a paper quilt out of them at the school.

The finished quilts will be hung around town.

“In the school’s students are taught that Martin Luther King Jr. himself had a dream, and with his dream, he was able to change our country and our world,” AmeriCorps event organizer Paige Boyer said.

The event is free and open to the public. Free food will be provided to participants.

For more information, phone Boyer at 253-389-9266 or e-mail paige.boyer@gmail.com.

• On Tuesday, Left.Pol, a Port Angeles political discussion group, will present a video of Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech “I Have a Dream” at the Port Angeles Library, 2210 S. Peabody St., from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The film shows his address and King in action during the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom” on Aug. 28, 1963.

A structured discussion about the state of King’s dream will follow.

For more information, e-mail Andrew McInnes at leftpol@yahoo.com.

Sequim

• The North Olympic Land Trust and Sequim High School Environmental Club will work on a watershed restoration project on Siebert Creek between Port Angeles and Sequim during a day of service Monday.

The two work sessions will be from 10 a.m. to noon and from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

The multiphased project will begin with removal of invasive Scotch broom plants, and will be followed in the spring with the planting of trees donated by Merrill & Ring and trail work to allow the land trust to open the property to the public.

Participants will meet Monday at the end of Siebert Creek Road, which is off U.S. Highway 101 between Port Angeles and Sequim.

Volunteers should bring work gloves, drinking water and rain gear, as well as lunch for those working both sessions.

For more information or to RSVP, phone Lorrie Campbell, land trust stewardship manager, at 360-417-1815, ext. 4.

Port Townsend

• AmeriCorps and Habitat for Humanity of East Jefferson County will join with community volunteers to work on two houses in Port Townsend on Monday.

Volunteers, who already have been signed up for the project, will work on two houses on 20th Street.

“This is a day to remember Dr. King’s selfless service,” said Habitat for Humanity’s AmeriCorps VISTA member Cassandra Little.

No more volunteers are needed.

• Volunteers also will visit Discovery View Retirement Community,1051 Hancock St., Port Townsend, for singing and creating art projects, AmeriCorps said.

The event will run from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Monday and is recommended for volunteers 7 years and older.

“There will be singing and dancing and art projects and basically just visiting with residents there,” Livingston said.

For more information, visit the Port Townsend YMCA, 1919 Blaine St., or e-mail adayonpt@gmail.com.

• For more outdoor work, volunteers will help remove European beach grass — an invasive species — from Point Wilson in Port Townsend on Monday.

Volunteers, who should wear old clothes and sturdy shoes, will work from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

For more information visit the Port Townsend YMCA or e-mail adayonpt@gmail.com

• A community dinner for all the volunteers in Port Townsend and Chimacum will be held from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Monday at Undertown Coffee and Wine Bar in Port Townsend with live music, food and drinks.

Volunteers can get tickets from the Port Townsend YMCA. For more information, e-mail adayonpt@gmail.com.

• The Washington Conservation Corps will hold its annual Martin Luther King Day Volunteer Event at Fort Flager State Park, 10541 Flagler Road, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday.

Volunteers can work on a fire pit replacement, trail maintenance, beach cleanup and a dock removal.

The public is welcome. Food and refreshments will be provided.

For more information, phone AJ Garcia at 360-550-6954 or e-mail ajgarcia1988@gmail.com.

Chimacum

• Paint and renovation of the Olympic Penisula Thrift Shoppe at 10632 Rhody Drive and improving the Pea Patch Community Garden in Chimacum will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., AmeriCorps said.

Volunteers will build raised beds in the community garden and sort, tag and hang items.

Forks

• A school supply drive for middle school students in Forks will run from noon to 3 p.m. Monday at the Community Center, 91 Maple Ave.

The drive, hosted by AmeriCorps, also will include arts and crafts for children.

• A cultural awareness day in Forks in honor of King will be held Sunday, Jan. 23 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Rainforest Art Center, 35 N. Forks Ave.

The event was originally scheduled for Monday but was changed to Jan. 23.

The “Day of Diversity” will include the West End AmeriCorps, in cooperation with the Quileute Tribal School and Forks High School, in an exhibition of artistic and musical talents.

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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.