The 19th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Breakfast, with keynote speaker Donna Banks, community resource coordinator for Spring Hill, will be held Monday, Jan. 17.

The public is invited to join the celebration honoring King and his dream, beginning at 7:30 a.m. at Stetson University’s Rinker Field House inside the Hollis Center, 600 N. Bert Fish Drive, DeLand.

Admission is $5 per person and includes a full buffet and program of speakers, prayer and music. The celebration closes with a march from the Stetson campus through downtown DeLand to the Chisholm Community Center, 520 S. Clara Ave., DeLand.

Tickets are available in advance from David Staples, 386-734-8327, and at the door. A retired educator, Staples is a member of the community-based MLK Planning Committee that initiated the breakfast in the early 1980s. The event has taken place at Stetson since 1993.

STAR 94.5 radio personality JoJo Oneal will preside over the program. Greater Union First Baptist Church Pastor Troy Bradley, chair of the MLK Planning Committee, will close the program and coordinate the march.

Highlights of the program will include:

• Welcome remarks by Dr. Wendy B. Libby, president of Stetson University;
• Invocation, Blessing and Benediction by the Rev. Wendell Gibson, Greater Bethlehem Baptist Church;
• Remarks about the occasion by the students of the Brighthouse Spring Hill Boys & Girls Club;
• Music by Frances Gillard, Volusia County Schools;
• Greetings and remarks by state and local representatives and school officials;
• Keynote speech by Donna Banks, community resource coordinator for Spring Hill;
• “Keepers of the Dream” special recognitions; and
• March led by local ministers.

“We welcome everyone to take part,” said Bradley about the breakfast, program and march. “Dr. King’s dream was for all people.”

On Tuesday, Jan. 18, public speaker Jim Lucas will chronicle the Civil Rights Movement through the eyes of King in a one-man show at Stetson titled, “REFLECTIONS: The Life and Times of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” That event will be held at 7 p.m. in the Stetson Room of the Carlton Union Building on campus, 131 E. Minnesota Ave., DeLand. The program is free and open to the public.