SALISBURY – Salisbury will be celebrating civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday all weekend.

The long weekend will start with a parade on Saturday from 11 a.m.-noon in downtown. There are more than 50 participants this year, including Food Lion and Novant Health Rowan Medical Center, dance groups like the YouNique Starz Dance Team and Triple Threat Dance & Charm and Greek organizations like the Salisbury Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, Inc., and Omega Psi Phi/Lambda Psi Chapter.

The Salisbury City Council and East Spencer Mayor Barbara Mallett will walk down with the parade, and so will the Salisbury Bike Riders and the House of Prayer Band Brass.

The Livingstone College Marching Blue Thunder will bring up the rear of the parade.

The parade will be followed by a post-parade celebration at the Salisbury Civic Center at 315 Martin Luther King Blvd. from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m.

On Sunday, the 40^th annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday Celebration and Humanitarian Service Award Program will take place at Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church at 1920 Shirley Ave. at 3 p.m.

Dr. Leonzo Lynch, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Charlotte, will be the event’s guest speaker.

Lynch had dedicated his life to proclaiming the gospel and has preached across the country while trying to live a life of service to others, according to a press release.

There will be five recipients of the Humanitarian Service Award:

• Rev. Debra Ellison
• Julian Simmon
• Otis Gibson, community leader from East Spencer
• Abe Daniels, J.C. Price American Legion Post 107
• Families and Communities Together (F.A.C.T.), a community outreach program sponsored by A.M.E. Zion churches in the area

The S. R. & Eva H. Johnson Memorial Scholarship will go to Jaylen Brown, graduate of North Rowan High School and now in his first year at Winston-Salem State University.

For more information about the awards program, call 704-637-0954.

The 31^st annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast will take place on Monday, Jan. 16 at the J.F. Hurley YMCA at 828 Jake Alexander Blvd. W. at 7 a.m.

Meg Ham, president of Food Lion, Dari Caldwell, president of Novant Health, and Mayor Karen Alexander will give greetings.

Triple Threat Dance & Charm will perform a dramatic presentation called “Glory.”

Speaker for the breakfast will be Dr. Kenston Griffin, founder and CEO of Dream Builders Communications, Inc.

The aim of Griffin’s business is “to educate across the globe by raising one’s awareness and belief system in every field of human endeavor,” according to a press release.

Griffin is internationally known throughout the corporate, education, federal and judicial and non-profit realms for his award-winning addresses that push to transform people’s lives.

For more information on the parade, post-parade celebration or breakfast, call 704-638-5217.