Citizens young and old will celebrate the annual Suffolk City-Wide Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration this Monday.

Local 2426 UAW and the Nansemond-Suffolk Branch of the NAACP will host a march prior to the celebration from Oak Grove Baptist Church at 2635 E. Washington St. to East End Baptist Church at 1056 Portsmouth Blvd.

The march will begin at 8:30 a.m. and is expected to conclude around 9:30 a.m., according to Linda Brown with Local 2426 UAW. She said anyone is welcome to join the march on Monday.

“We would love to have them,” Brown said. “As many as we can.”

Following the march will be a program at East End Baptist Church at 10 a.m. featuring the EEBC Youth Explosion Choir and TL Chisholm, radio host of “Praise 104.9.”

Costellar Ledbetter, Nansemond-Suffolk Branch treasurer, said the event is meant to raise awareness of the challenges young people are facing today.

She called the event a “prescription for our youth,” with a message for community partners to help children study for Standards of Learning tests and stand against bullying and gun violence.

“We really need to work on trying to get our children in a better situation,” she said. “If we can all work together, we can have more empowerment, and the young people can see that it’s about them.”

Call 535-8584 or 539-9400 for more information on the march.