NOTE: “Today” and “tonight” refer to Friday, Oct. 25.
A harvest meal, arts awards and an exercise fundraiser are among the attractions on the North Olympic Peninsula this weekend.
For information about the FarmStrong concert and album release Saturday in Sequim and other arts and entertainment news, see Peninsula Spotlight, the Peninsula Daily News’ weekly entertainment guide, in today’s edition.
SEQUIM
122nd Harvest Dinner
SEQUIM — Trinity United Methodist Church will host the 122nd annual Harvest Dinner from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. today.
The dinner at the church at 100 S. Blake Ave. is considered the oldest continuing social event in the Dungeness Valley.
Tickets are $12, or $5 for children 10 and younger. They may be obtained at the door or in advance at the church office.
The meal will consist of Swiss steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, a vegetable, coleslaw, rolls, dessert and beverages.
Information is available from the church at 360-683-5367.
Contests canceled
AGNEW — A pumpkin-carving contest and chowder competition planned for Olympic Unitarian Universalist Fellowship on Saturday has been canceled.
For more information, visit www.olympicuuf.org or phone 360-417-2665.
Affordable Care Act
SEQUIM — An open venue to learn more about the Affordable Care Act will be hosted by the Sequim unit of the Boys & Girls Clubs, 400 W. Fir St., from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.
Castell Insurance will provide 15-minute presentations on the Affordable Care Act throughout the day.
Licensed insurance agents as well as volunteers from the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe and Volunteers in Medicine of the Olympics also will be on hand to provide information.
The event is free, with nothing being sold; it is intended to provide only information.
“Many children are eligible for free health insurance, and we want our club families and the entire community to know about this opportunity,” the Boys & Girls Clubs said in a statement.
For more information, phone 360-683-8095.
Reading, music
SEQUIM — Joyce resident Patrick Loafman will read his poetry and prose and play the kora, a 21-string harp-lute, during the Writers on the Spit reading tonight.
The public is invited to the Fourth Friday Readings series at Rainshadow Coffee Roasting Co., 157 W. Cedar St.
Admission is free, and listeners are urged to come around 6 p.m. for the reading to start at 6:30 p.m.
Loafman, also a wildlife biologist and gardener, recently published a novel, Somewhere Upriver, which is set in the Queets Rain Forest, Forks, Port Townsend and the University of Washington.
His next poetry collection is titled A Freckle Shaped Like California.
Copies of Somewhere Upriver are available at Oven Spoonful and at local bookstores or by emailing ploafman@tfon.com.
Loafman edits an online poetry journal, the Dandelion Farm Review, and has had his work published in two chapbooks and more than 20 journals.
Contests canceled
AGNEW — A pumpkin-carving contest and chowder competition planned for Olympic Unitarian Universalist Fellowship on Saturday has been canceled.
For more information, visit www.olympicuuf.org or phone 360-417-2665.
Aviation information
SEQUIM — Paul Kuntz will present “What We Learned From This Accident” and Skip Kratzer will display aviation-related art at 10 a.m. Saturday.
The presentations will be given to the Experimental Aviation Association No. 430 at Hangar No. 15 at Sequim Valley Airport, 468 Dorothy Hunt Lane.
The event is open to the public.
PORT TOWNSEND
Art awards winners
PORT TOWNSEND — The Port Townsend Arts Commission winners of this year’s Angel of the Arts and Patron of the Arts awards will be celebrated at a ceremony from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. today.
The ceremony will be at the Cotton Building, 607 Water St.
Gale Wallis is the Angel of the Arts winner, and Janette Force was awarded the Patron of the Arts award.
Wallis, is creator of Bareboards Arts & Entertainment Listerve, a public service that for more than 15 years has provided information about arts performances, exhibits and events.
Force has served as executive director of the Port Townsend Film Festival since 2009 and is director of the Port Townsend Film Institute, which does year-round work with such projects as Global Lens and brings films and filmmakers to local students.
A special citation for contribution to the arts will be presented to honor Lockwood Dennis, a well-known Port Townsend painter and printmaker who died in 2012.
Others cited by the commission and singled out by their peers for exceptional volunteer contribution to the arts include Germaine Arthur, Community Chorus founder; Marcia Perlstein of KPTZ radio; and Amanda Steurer of Key City Public Theatre.
Port Townsend dentist Steven Scharf was cited for his continued support of local arts.
Broadway music
PORT TOWNSEND — An evening of gourmet food, wine and Broadway music — starring singer Carol Swarbrick Dries and pianist Linda Dowdell — will benefit a pair of local charities tonight.
The Belmont is catering the dinner at the Northwest Maritime Center, 431 Water St., at 5:30 p.m.
Tickets are $100, with proceeds to support the Kiwanis Club’s children’s programs and the Edensaw Community Cancer Foundation.
For reservations, phone the Belmont at 360-385-3007 or Edensaw Woods at 800-745-3336.
Information also can be found at www.KeyCityPublicTheatre.org.
Book-signing set
PORT TOWNSEND — Nebula Award-winning author Elizabeth Ann Scarborough of Port Townsend will read and sign copies of her new series of comic “purranormal” detective stories featuring Spam the Cat at 7 p.m. Saturday.
The reading will be at April Fool & Penny Too, 725 Water St.
Spam lives in a town like Port Townsend, and his haunts include local businesses with the same names as the community’s iconic fixtures — Elevated Ice Cream and Sea J’s Cafe, where he stalks vampires (Spam Vs. the Vampire) and tries to rescue staff members from being turned into zombies (The Tour Bus of Doom and Spam and the Zombie Apocalyps-o).
Scarborough originally wrote Spam Vs. the Vampire as a satirical answer to the popular Twilight books.
Both Elevated and Sea J’s are carrying The Tour Bus of Doom.
The third story in the Spam series is Father Christmas: Spam the Cat’s First Christmas.
All proceeds from Father Christmas, both paper copies and e-books, are being donated to the Jefferson County Humane Society shelter.
Paper copies of the books will be available for sale at the event.
The stories are family-friendly, suitable for both adults and older kids.
Scarborough won the Nebula Award for The Healer’s War, published in 1989.
Her website is at www.eascarborough.com.
Organic Seed Alliance
PORT TOWNSEND — Organic Seed Alliance will mark its 10th anniversary with dinner, an art show and a fundraiser that begins at 6 p.m. Saturday.
The celebration will be at the Northwest Maritime Center, 431 Water St.
The deadline to purchase tickets at $75 per plate was Wednesday.
OSA has established itself as the leading organic seed institution in the U.S., organizers said.
It was formally known as the nonprofit Abundant Life Seed Foundation, established in 1973.
A fire in August 2003 burned the Port Townsend offices of Abundant Life Seed Foundation, destroying more than 2,300 seed varieties.
Following the fire, Abundant Life Seed Foundation changed its name to Organic Seed Alliance and rebuilt the group with the mission of advancing the ethical development and stewardship of seed.
For more information, visit www.seedalliance.org.
PORT ANGELES
Artist lecture slated
PORT ANGELES — Darren Orange, a mixed-media painter who grew up among the apple orchards of Yakima, will present a lecture at 11:30 a.m. today.
This the final day of his show in the PUB Gallery of Art at Peninsula College.
After his lecture, a reception will be held in the gallery inside the J Building on the main campus at 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd.
The gallery is open weekdays from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Admission is free.
For information on Orange’s show, lecture and other public events at Peninsula College, visit www.pencol.edu.
Exercise benefit
PORT ANGELES — Storm King CrossFit, 304 E. Front St., will offer a breast cancer awareness fundraiser from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Saturday.
All proceeds will go to the Pink Up Port Angeles campaign organized by the Soroptimist International of Port Angeles Noon Club.
The exercise facility will offer a variety of workouts, for a minimum donation of $5 each.
One is for current CrossFitters, another for anyone who cares to walk in and another for children.
Each workout will be designed so it can easily be scaled to fit all fitness levels, and none will last longer than 15 minutes.
Storm King will add the money earned Saturday to funds already raised by its pink shirt sales and donate it to Pink Up Port Angeles, which raises money for Operation Uplift, a Port Angeles-based group that provides help and information for people with cancer.
For more information, http://tinyurl.com/pdn-stormking.
Genealogy research
PORT ANGELES — The Clallam County Genealogical Society’s Research Center, 402 E. Lauridsen Blvd., is hosting an open house from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday.
Jana Hyatt, who has taught classes dealing with many different aspects of genealogy, will present a class, “Getting More Out of Census Records.”
This class is essential for any beginning or intermediate genealogist, organizers said.
The class is free to members of the society, with a donation of $5 requested from nonmembers.
Refreshments will be served.
For more information, phone 360-417-5000 between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays.
Kids book-signing
PORT ANGELES — Port Angeles children’s book author Patrea Carrington has released The Adventures of Freddy and Betty Bumpkin: Grow a Pumpkin, the first volume in a planned series of children’s books.
She will sign copies of her book and provide readings at a meet-and-greet at the Port Angeles Library, 2210 S. Peabody St., from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.
The event is free and open to the public.
Refreshments will be provided.
Carrington’s debut book for early childhood readers will attempt to stimulate cognitive development through rhyming.
“It will teach children the wonders that await them just outside their door and that they can accomplish truly amazing things through patience and dedication,” Carrington said in a news release.
The book is available in Port Angeles at Odyssey Bookshop, 114 W. Front St., or online at Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
TAFY bake sale
PORT ANGELES — The Answer For Youth will hold a “Spook-tacular” bake sale at Swain’s General Store, 602 E. First St., from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.
Baked goods for sale include blue-ribbon breads, Norma and Stacey’s “Gruesome Goodies” and Pam’s “Famous Zucchini Bread.”
TAFY is a nonprofit that provides outreach to homeless or at-risk youths and some disadvantaged young adults.
For more information, phone 360-670-4363.
JOYCE
Lions breakfast
JOYCE — An all-you-can-eat benefit breakfast is planned at the Crescent Bay Lions Club, state Highway 112 and Holly Hill Road, on Sunday.
Breakfasts are planned from 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. every Sunday morning except holidays until the Sunday before Mother’s Day in May.
The cost is $6 for adults and $3.50 for children 12 and younger.
The menu includes eggs cooked to order, hot cakes, french toast, biscuits and gravy, hashbrowns, ham and sausage or bacon.
Proceeds help Crescent Bay Lions members support Crescent School yearbooks, scholarships for Crescent High School seniors, holiday food baskets, glasses for the needy and other community projects.