For 2025, the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Organizing Committee of the Bulloch County NAACP has planned to hold the King Holiday Celebration Parade at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 18, leaving MLK Day itself, Monday, Jan. 20, to be a “Day of Service.”

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

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

Keynote speaker for the breakfast will be Chelsea Weaver, the Statesboro-based licensed professional counselor who operates Bloom House Therapy and Wellness. For music during the 2025 Prayer Breakfast, the Georgia Southern University Gospel Choir is scheduled to perform.

People who wish to attend are asked to donate $25 each for breakfast, since the event serves as the Youth Council’s annual fundraiser.

MLK Church Service

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

The theme for the overall 2025 observance is “Dream with Hope; Believe in the Community; Lead with Purpose.”

In several past years, the Elm Street Church hosted the community service after the parade. This Sunday’s program will be the same kind as in past years, only earlier in January and not after the parade, explained Yevette McCall, president of the Bulloch County Branch of the NAACP.

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

Jan. 18 Parade

& ‘Conversations’

This year, as noted, the parade will be held on a separate day, Saturday, Jan. 18, rolling through downtown Statesboro beginning at 1 p.m.

“We just decided to do things a little different to see if we can get more people involved, be more impactful,” McCall said. “We’ll try it and see what happens, but all in all we know the weekend will be great, this weekend and next.”

The entry fee for groups or organizations to drive or march in the parade is $30, but of course it’s free to watch. Applications for parade entries are available at Craig Tremble Funeral Home and Hill’s Mortuary or through a link at the Bulloch County NAACP page on Facebook. The check-in time for parade units next Saturday will be 11 a.m., with all to be in place by 12:30 p.m.

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

“That will be an event where we will really be talking about the life and legacy of MLK and then some of the things that the community would like to see the NAACP have conversations about or set our meetings around,” said McCall.

A food truck is slated to be positioned near City Hall during this event.

Day of Service

Then Monday, Jan. 20 will be the Day of Service, with activities slated to begin at 10 a.m. on behalf of Restoring the Breach at 515 Denmark St., Suite 2500. Note: this is an update and change from an earlier version of this story, which reflected the NAACP’s previous intent, shown in online MLK celebration fliers, to hold Day of Service activities at Statesboro Food Bank. But scheduling for the day worked out better for volunteers to serve at Restoring the Breach and not the Food Bank, McCall said.

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

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

“We made two main changes,” she said. “One … we wanted to spread things out because we felt like it did get a little long trying to push everything into Monday, so we wanted to give community members more opportunity to come and participate in some event by spreading things out, but we wanted everything to be coordinated.

“And then we did want to emphasize the day of service on Monday,” she said.

McCall and McCollar credited the Organizing Committee chair, Dorsey Baldwin, for leadership in planning the MLK events.