The sixteenth annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration will be held Thursday, Jan. 21, beginning with a light supper at 6 p.m. at Friendship Chapel Baptist Church. Everyone is invited to the free event.
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                Wake Forest’s Parks and Recreation Department will host an open house Friday, Jan. 22, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Flaherty Park Community Center. Visitors will hear about all the programs the department offers, see demonstrations from current programs and be able to register for upcoming programs.  
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                The Wake Forest Historical Association will hold its quarterly meeting Sunday, Jan. 24, from 3 to 5 p.m. at St. John’s Episcopal Church on Durham Road. Everyone is invited to hear Melanie Murphy describe the 19^th Century architecture she found in Wake Forest when she surveyed North Main and its surroundings before the town’s historic district was established in that area.
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                The Friends of the Wake Forest Public Library will continue their winter speaker series when author Carol Pelosi describes the centennial book, Connections . . . 100 Years of Wake Forest History, at the library on Tuesday, Jan. 26, at 7 p.m.
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                The fifth annual Renaissance Ball sponsored by the Wake Forest Downtown Revitalization Corporation and the Wake Forest Junior Women’s Club will be held Saturday, Feb. 20, at Crossroads Entertainment. The ball benefits the Wake Forest Boys and Girls Club. Get your tuxedo out of mothballs, shop for something shiny and slinky and find an exotic mask. It’s time for fun.
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                Mayor Vivian Jones will give her second annual State of the Town speech Monday, Feb. 22, during the State of the Town dinner at Tuxedo Junction. Tickets will be available at town hall beginning Jan. 19.
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                The Wake Forest Area Chamber of Commerce will present its annual Economic Development Forum in the Mill Room at The Factory on Thursday, Feb. 25, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.