Local nonprofit Character, Health, Awareness, Responsibility and Maturity hosted a community Juneteenth event Saturday and Sunday at Spudder Park with an aim to help at-risk youth and families.
The organization is focused on helping spread awareness and education in the community.
“Our mission is to make at-risk youth and at-risk communities aware of the different things that are diminishing our communities,” C.H.A.R.M. executive director Crystal Washington, said, “as far as our health, as far as our character and making the right choices, responsibilities to our home and our community. Our mission is to help the at-risk households.”
Washington said the event offered families and individuals an opportunity to come together as a community, eat, relax and support one another.
“This helps because it is an event for all ages. It is people that know each other, people that don’t know each other. You have a community all in one place in our neighborhood,” Washington said.
She later added, “It just allows a safe space for everyone to be able to participate with their families and other people of the community.”
Saturday’s event featured pony-riding, food, vendors, a DJ and several activities for children.
Washington said that gathering as a community is valuable, particularly for Juneteenth.
“It’s very important because for this event specifically, it’s Juneteenth. So it’s about celebrating freedom, how far we’ve come. It’s about celebrating our ancestors,” she said, later adding, “Juneteenth is just as beneficial as the Fourth of July or Easter or Christmas.”
The Wichita Falls event has been an annual tradition for nearly two decades.
The Juneteenth holiday its origins in Texas. The holiday celebrates the emancipation of slaves following the Civil War. Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger announced the freeing of slaves and the enforcement of their emancipation in Texas on June 19, 1865. That was long after President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation.
Washington said the yearly get-together was important long before Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021.
“We’ve been doing this event since before it was a federal holiday,” Washington said. “This is our eighteenth year. They were slow to it.”
Another key aspect of the event was a balloon release to remember loved ones who are deceased. Several attendees participated in the balloon release.
One of the participants, Sue Simpson, said the release helps to keep lost loved ones in memory.
“It’s in honor of the ones that we have lost,” Simpson said. “It doesn’t matter how long it’s been. We need to show them that we still love them here or there.”
The release showcased the work C.H.A.R.M. has done to highlight the importance of a community coming together.
“This right here helps to, you know, to heal a little bit,” Simpson said.
More:Vroom, vroom: Show and Shine Car Show helps fuel United Regional
More:Sheppard AFB welcomes new commander of the 82nd Training Wing
