Join us for our first Juneteenth Celebration!
The City of Auburn will host a Juneteenth Festival at Les Gove Park on Saturday, June 18 and I hope you will join us.
Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration of the end of slavery in America. After the Emancipation Proclamation was issued on January 1, 1863, owners in many isolated areas kept word from the people they had enslaved so that they would not flee. On June 19, 1865, some of the last enslaved people in America were freed when the news, at last, reached Confederate Galveston, Texas.
In 2021, the US Congress passed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act establishing June 19 as Juneteenth National Independence Day and making the day a federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. The Act was signed into law by President Biden on June 17, 2021.
The celebration will feature live music, food trucks, inflatable rides for the kids to enjoy, and opportunities to support Black businesses. See you there!
This week I was interviewed by a local Boy Scout Liem Allen from Scouting Troop 401 for his Citizenship Badge. Since I have a podcast now we decided to turn into a segment for my next episode! He had some great questions for me about litter in our community and what the City is doing to stop it. I was particularly impressed that he wanted to know how people - especially young people - can help reduce the litter in our community. Tune into my next podcast about community pride and you'll get to hear the full interview. Listen to previous episodes here!
 Old Photo Resurfaces
After the interview, Liem's Dad Elliott pulled out his phone and showed me a photo from four years ago of Liem and I at our Clean Sweep event in 2018! He sent me the photo along with these comments:
"Attached is a four-year-old photograph of Mayor Backus that I shared with her last Tuesday. It takes place at Fenster Park on Clean Sweep Day in 2018. The cub scouts on the Mayor’s immediate right side are Darren Baptiste and Liem Allen (tongue sticking out). The significance of this photo is that Darren is the Life Rank Scout that spoke at last Monday’s Council meeting to invite the entire City Council to the 100th year Anniversary of Troop 401 next year, the other is Liem Allen (Star Rank) who had the privilege to interview the mayor this past Tuesday. This photo expresses how young kids with Mayor Backus’ support start to get active in their community and how it developed to their delivery this week as young people. We all thought that was and continues to be great civic development in our young people."
I want to thank the Allen family for sharing their time and their talents with us in Auburn! These are the things that give us all hope that our future will be bright!
School is almost out - time to throw a party
 Every year we throw a big party for our young residents and we are thrilled to bring back one of our most popular summer events!
The perfect day for any child! Live entertainment, inflatable rides, face painting, a variety of activity/info booths, craft vendor sales, miniature golf, rock climbing wall, ArtRageous hands-on art experiences, large vehicle & equipment display, a variety of food concessions, and much more.
Valley Medical Center will be offering FREE bike helmet fittings and $10 helmet sales at the festival. Seattle Children's South Clinic will be offering a FREE obstacle course, that will get kids hopping, balancing and jumping their way to better health.
Join us on Friday, June 24 from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM at Les Gove Park (910 9th ST SE) for all the fun! [More details]
On Monday night we held our annual Pride flag raising ceremony at City Hall before the council meeting. We had a very nice gathering with our friends, community members, councilmembers and staff. Thank you to all that attended. Please take a moment to view the video of the full ceremony.
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