LOXLEY — For the eighth straight year, the Loxley Area Action Group will celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with a march and program in Loxley.

“This is something we’re doing so our young people can know that anything is possible,” said Ronnie McBride with the Area Action Group.

The day’s festivities will begin with a march from the Loxley Church of God to the Loxley Civic Center beginning at 9 a.m., followed by a short program at the Civic Center.

The program will feature youth-led singing and reading featuring King’s writings and speeches. Inspirational speaker Shirley Ann Carroll Scott of Spanish Fort will serve as guest speaker for the program.

Scott is a member of the Mt. Aid Missionary Baptist Church led by the Rev. George Collins, pastor, where she serves as music ministry directory, mission department president, church secretary, secretary for the Willing Workers’ Ministry, Bible instructor for Women’s Ministry, teacher, Women’s Sunday School Bible Class, deaconess and missionary.

She is a gospel songwriter with some selections nationally recorded and writes skits, plays and poetry.

Scott serves as president of the Women’s Department of the First Eastern Shore District Baptist Association; member/treasurer of the Port City United Voices Gospel Music Workshop of America; member/program coordinator for the Mobile County Mass Choir; and is a member, Gideon’s Women’s Auxiliary.

A graduate of Baldwin County High School, Scott received her Bachelor of Science degree from Alabama State College and master’s degree from the University of South Alabama.

She is a retired teacher in the Baldwin County School System and presently serves as receptionist for Small’s Mortuary in Fairhope.

She is married to Deacon Willie Scott and they have one son, Derek and his wife Amanda, and two grandchildren, Ariana and Orion.

The celebration in Loxley is part of the nationwide Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, which is held every year on the third Monday in January to commemorate his birthday on Jan. 15.

Introduced as legislation by U.S. Sen. Harris Wofford of Pennsylvania and Atlanta Congressman John Lewis, MLK Day was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994.

The march, which commemorates the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery that created National support for federal voting rights legislation.