Centralia will celebrate Juneteenth on Saturday in Laura Leake Park.
Activities will begin at one Saturday afternoon with a ribbon cutting for the park improvements and the announcement of another improvement grant.
One of those on the organizing committee Joshua Favors says activities will continue through eight Saturday evening.
“We start out with Zumba, then welcomes, history and purpose, community service prayers and that kind of thing. Live performances, people singing and reciting the Martin Luther King I have a dream speech. Then we go into our community awards. We like to recognize members of the community for their contributions. We will have a 3-on-3 basketball tournament which should be fun. We will have family games, sack races, carnival games, cake walks, prizes and a presentation from our local drill team.”
Favors says the Juneteenth Celebration has three goals, economic development, community development, and fellowship.
“Our economic development thing our vendors usually make a pretty decent amount of money. We have food trucks. This year we will have a beer garden and a food court area. We are hoping that will bring in a lot of business. We will have our regular vendor booths where people can get information about local academic programs, religious things, stuff like that. Put the community in touch with the resources available to them. And the fellowship, just getting together and having a really good time.”
After the formal program, an informal block party will be held with a DJ and old style playlist.
