Last weekend, Covenant Shores retirement community in Mercer Island held its annual Martin Luther King Jr. observance.

Rev. Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil, an associate professor for reconciliation studies at Seattle Pacific University and one of the pastors at Quest Church in Ballard, was the keynote speaker. McNeil, who was a classmate of Barack Obama at Occidental College in the 80s, invited residents to follow Dr. King’s example by verbalizing their dreams and then living them.

Other events of the weekend-long celebration included the showing of the movie “Ruby Bridges,” a sermon on love by Rev. Wayne Perryman, a Gospel concert by The Faithful-aires and an opportunity to write letters to state and national lawmakers.

“This year’s event was the most well-attended of any in recent years,” said Chaplain Greg Asimakoupoulos. “Spreading activities over an entire weekend (rather than limiting the observance to an hour-long program on Monday) proved to be very successful.”

The MLK weekend is sponsored by the resident-led Diversity Awareness Partners at Covenant Shores.