A retirement celebration for deputy court clerk Jean Banks is at 3 p.m. Friday, at the Homer Courthouse. The public is invited to honor her more than 20 years service with the Alaska court system. Cake and punch will be served.

The Homer Community Food Pantry is calling all friends. The pantrys shelves are bare and to help fill them there will be a Food and Fund$ Raiser Dinner. It will be held at the Homer United Methodist Church, 770 East End Road, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Friday. Seafood lasagna, soup, salad, bread and dessert will be served. Dinner tickets can be purchased at the Homer Bookstore (adult tickets are $15 and kids are $7) or bring 15 cans or boxes of food for each adult or seven cans or boxes for each child to the pantry on Mondays, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., or at the door Friday, Oct. 26. The Bookstore will not be accepting or collecting food in exchange for a ticket. They can only accept cash. There will be prize drawings, including a chance to win a gold quartz necklace.

The Kachemak Bay Birders monthly meeting is at 4:30 p.m. Monday in the auditorium of the Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center. Following the meeting, Jason Sodergren will present information on The Owls of Homer including current information about his owl-banding project. Anyone who is interested in birding, birds and their habitats, citizen science or would just like to know more about the organization is welcome to attend. For more information, call Lani Raymond at 235-9477.

Haven Worship Center on Pioneer Avenue (across the street from ReMax) holds a prayer gathering each Wednesday from noon-2 p.m. through Nov. 6. The emphasis of this meeting is to pray for the nation following the examples in II Chronicles 7:14 and I Timothy 2:1-2. There is no political agenda. All are welcome. For more information, call Kim at 235-5363.

Sprout is offering a Writing Playgroup on Thursdays through Nov. 8, from 2 to 3 p.m. Parents are invited to bring their 2-and-under child for playgroup while parents participate in guided writing exercises and discuss ways to record parenting moments, lows and highs. Bring a notebook and pen, or whatever you want to write on. Sprout is located at 3691 Ben Walters Lane. It is free to participate. For more information, call 235-6044.

Writing Motherhood is a four-week creative writing course that uses motherhood to provide material and inspiration for writing. This workshop will be held Saturdays through Nov. 17, from 10 a.m. to noon at the R.E.C. Room, 3957 Nielsen Circle. Instructor Miranda Weiss is a mother of two and author of Tide, Feather, Snow: A Life in Alaska (HarperCollins 2009). For more information, or to register, contact writingmotherhood@gmail.com or 907-299-5550.

The annual Lutefisk and Lefse Dinner is Saturday, Nov. 10, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Christ Lutheran Church, mile Kenai Spur Highway in Soldotna. For more information, call (907) 262-4757. Donations will be accepted at the door.

Kachemak Bay Equestrian Association is holding its annual meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 13, at 6:30 p.m. in the West Homer Elementary School Library. Presentations will be given by Pony Club and the Phantom Riders 4-H Club. There will be a slide show by Sue Robinson.