Juneteenth Celebration Offers Fun, Fellowship

HUNTINGDON (June 21) — The Carroll County Juneteenth Celebration was Saturday at Edwards Park. The all-day event began with a mid-morning parade and ended with fireworks at dark. In between, there was great food, fun activities, vendors and plenty of fellowship.

The event, now in its fifth year, is organized by the Carroll County Juneteenth Committee, led by Co-Presidents Jobina Gordon and Crystal Fuller.

Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day, is officially observed on June 19 to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States. On that day in 1865, the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation was ordered. Juneteenth was recognized as a federal holiday in 2021.

Gordon told The Banner, “A lot of people don’t know the actual meaning of Juneteenth, and that’s what we’re trying to promote.”

Committee member Kodia Johnson elaborated, “It’s about bringing us all together, black, white, our kids, letting them know our history and what is important to us. How important it is to understand the meaning of where we come from and how far we’ve come along in our history. This is not just for us, this is about American history.”

Josh Shaw, in his fourth year on the committee, told The Banner, “I have loved working on this committee. What makes this committee unique is that we push truly for all people to be included in this day. I believe there’s a common misconception that this day is just supposed to be celebrated by people of color when truly, as a believer in Jesus, this is a reminder of Jesus coming to set the oppressed free. So this is a day for all of us to be celebrating together. This team has done phenomenal work in making sure that all people are included. We do really hard, heavy work, but we also have a lot of fun. This is a group of movers and shakers in this community that really just want to see this community offer its best version of itself. This event has been super fun to work on. Yes, it’s been hard, but the outcome of knowing the community sees enough in each of us to want to celebrate that… I absolutely love it, and I’m very grateful to be a part of it.”