For 2025, the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Organizing Committee of the Bulloch County NAACP has planned to hold the King Holiday Celebration Parade on Saturday, January 18th at 1 p.m., making MLK Day itself, Monday, January 20th . January, one day remains “Day of Service.”

But first, local events celebrating the national holiday begin this Saturday, Jan. 11, with the annual youth-led NAACP Prayer Breakfast at 9 a.m. at the Williams Center, 74 Georgia Ave. on Georgia Southern’s campus.

School-age members of the Bulloch County NAACP Youth Council work with adult volunteers to host the breakfast, which is also co-sponsored by the NAACP Georgia Southern University Chapter. The Xi Tau Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity at Georgia Southern will also pay tribute as part of this year’s breakfast, said Adrianne McCollar, co-adviser of the Bulloch NAACP Youth Council. Dr. King was one of several prominent civil rights activists who were members of Alpha Phi Alpha.

The breakfast’s keynote speaker is Chelsea Weaver, the Statesboro-based licensed professional counselor who operates Bloom House Therapy and Wellness. The Georgia Southern University Gospel Choir is scheduled to perform music during the 2025 Prayer Breakfast.

Those wishing to attend are asked to donate $25 each toward the breakfast, as the event serves as the Youth Council’s annual fundraiser.

MLK service

Then, an MLK Celebration Service is scheduled for Sunday, Jan. 12, at the Elm Street Church of God, 29 Elm St., Statesboro.

The theme of the entire celebration in 2025 is “Dream with Hope; belief in community; Lead with purpose.”

In past years, Elm Street Church has hosted the post-parade community service. This Sunday’s programming will be the same as in past years, just earlier in January and not after the parade, said Yevette McCall, president of the Bulloch County Branch of the NAACP.

“It’s still something for the community. It’s exactly the same service; it’s just not after the parade; It’s the week before,” she said.

Parade on January 18th

& ‘Conversations’

As previously mentioned, this year the parade will be held on a separate day, Saturday, January 18th, and will roll through downtown Statesboro beginning at 1 p.m

“We just decided to do things a little differently to see if we could involve more people and have a bigger impact,” McCall said. “We’ll try and see what happens, but all in all we know it’s going to be a great weekend, this weekend and the next.”

Admission is $30 for groups or organizations interested in attending or marching in the parade, but watching is of course free. Applications to participate in the parade can be made at Craig Tremble Funeral Home and Hill’s Mortuary or via a link on the Bulloch County NAACP page on Facebook. Check-in time for parade units next Saturday is 11:00 a.m. and everyone must be on site by 12:30 p.m

A “Community Conversations” program is planned immediately following the parade, not at a church but at the Statesboro City Hall, also known as the historic Jaeckel Hotel, 50 East Main St.

“This will be an event where we really talk about the life and legacy of MLK and then some of the things that the community would like to have conversations about or frame our meetings with the NAACP,” McCall said.

A food truck will be set up near City Hall during this event.

Day of service

Then Monday, January 20th is the day of service. Activities on behalf of Restoring the Breach are scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. at 515 Denmark St., Suite 2500. Note: This is an update and change from a previous version of this story, which reflected the NAACP’s previous intent, shown in online MLK celebration flyers, to hold Day of Service activities at the Statesboro Food Bank. But the day’s planning worked better for volunteers who work at Restoring the Breach rather than the food bank, McCall said.

Restoring the Breach Inc. is a Statesboro-based nonprofit corporation that provides tutoring services for youth and workshops for adults on topics such as family budgeting and career preparation, as well as other social service programs.

McCollar, also a member of the MLK Weekend Organizing Committee, commented on why this year’s events are being spread out over 10 days.

“We made two major changes,” she said. “First of all…we wanted to spread things out because we felt like moving everything to Monday would take a little too long, so by distributing things we wanted to give community members more of an opportunity to attend an event , but we wanted everything to be coordinated.

“And then we wanted to highlight the service day on Monday,” she said.

McCall and McCollar thanked Organizing Committee Chair Dorsey Baldwin for her leadership in planning the MLK events.