(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - Hello and welcome to The Journal, I'm Steve Kendall.

June 19th, is Juneteenth.

It recognizes and commemorates the effective end of slavery in the United States.

Marking the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas to take control of the state, fully ending the civil war.

Lima's Juneteenth celebration, well, was on a two year hiatus.

It's back this year and I'm joined by two members of the organizing group, Marc Wright and Tiffany Ward.

Welcome both of you to Journal.

Thanks for taking the time to talk with us today.

- Good morning, and thank you so much for having us.

- Yeah.

Thank you.

Marc you're the chair of this event.

Talk a little bit about the background of the event obviously the last couple of years due to COVID, things were a little quiet, but you're back.

But talk about the background of Juneteenth in Lima.

- Absolutely, it, you know, Juneteenth has it's generally been, it's taken place at the Martin Luther king park and, and so it it expands back back when Lawn Dale Smith used to organized this event.

And again, it's just a, it's been a celebration of of music spoken word, you know, fellowship, you know local leaders attending the event just to share in celebrating the the actual event of Juneteenth, as well as, you know talking about and embracing the culture and sharing the culture that has, you know, that was you know, you know, not able to exist, but you know now it's, you know, with this celebration it really brings that event to the forefront.

So it's been going on for several years here locally and now with, you know, more exposure, the national holiday it's really bringing this to focus for for many organizations and community leaders to embrace this as a, a celebration each and every year.

- Well, and as I mentioned in the introduction for a lot of people, we believe the civil war ended on at Appomattox and everything was done but the reality was it took several more months before the Confederacy was finally back in federal control back under the US government and get Texas was the last place that actually saw federal troops arrive and basically enforce the end of the Civil War and say, look, it's over and and then provide people with their freedom.

So it's a holiday that spent a long time in making.

And obviously, as you said, now is a federal holiday and rightly so because that really is the real end of the Civil War versus what we believe took place at Appomattox in Virginia.

So it's a good thing that we have an opportunity to not only celebrate the fact that it took place, but also educate about about what it means to, to the pop, to the US population.

And then especially those in the black population as well.

When you talk about some of the events and, and Tiffany you can jump in here too, because I know one of the pieces of this year's event and and maybe it's been in other events there's obviously a big health component with this too and I know that your organization isn't involved in that.

So talk a little bit about that aspect of it.

And we'll, we'll also to all the other events that go on it's a, it's a two day event, so it's a big celebration.

- Sure.

So Lima Memorial.

We have sponsored the event as well.

So we're gonna have what we call like a healthcare and opportunities tent available.

So we just want to, you know provide like a lot of education for the community.

We're gonna do like some healthcare screenings for the community some blood pressure checks we're gonna have like mental health awareness out there available, HR.

My HR team will be present as well.

So they'll talk about different, like opportunities reimbursement opportunities for the community that'll be available.

I just wanna give out some literature on like African American dieting, different recipes, healthy recipes.

And then just, I'm just looking forward to like being able to engage with them a little bit let them know, like, you know, we are here.

We wanna promote like inclusion and stuff for the community, with their community hospital.

So very excited to get out there and get involved with the community a little bit.

- Yeah.

And, and I know that in over the course of the last couple of years, as we've dealt with discussing COVID a lot more than I think we ever anticipated.

One of the things that kept coming up was that in some cases it's difficult to engage parts of the population who who are a little possibly distrustful of the medical system and this is an opportunity to inform them.

And, and as you said, engage and, and be inclusive about it.

So it's a great opportunity to, to show them just the value of this and, and what you, what you have to offer.

- Absolutely.

- Yeah.

Marc, obviously this event takes place over two days and and you touched a little bit about in, in general, about but kind of talk about some of the specific things that are going to go on here because obviously it's, it's a large scale event with a with a broad range of activities.

There's music, there's spoken word but there are other things going on as well.

- Yeah.

So Friday, June 17th we are having a black and white ball.

So it's a, you know, come dressed in all white all and or all black and really upscale, you know, where and it gets, it's a fundraising event for Juneteenth Lima.

So that's gonna be held at the Civic Center from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM on that Friday evening in the the patio area, inside the Civic Center.

So again, it's an event just to socialize, to bring folks in.

And again, it it's a $50 per seat event.

And again, where those proceeds are just helping to fund other things that we wanna do with Juneteenth as we move forward, each year.

So that's gonna be taking place on that Friday evening of you know, live music with Brandon Longford some this whole 360 selfie photos stuff and and just really fellowship and and networking for the folks who are and it's only a hundred tickets available.

So it's a very exclusive event.

So those tickets are on sale through Event Bright at the moment, right on Facebook to be able to log in and purchase your tickets right online.

It's gonna be great, a great evening there.

And then on Saturday that's the big day that's gonna be held right downtown you know, between Market Street and High Street and where the city, it's a complete block off of the area.

That's gonna be taking place from noon to 6:00 PM.

And so the, you know, there's going to be live music all throughout the day, different acts coming in throughout the day, as well as, you know the spoken word that we have, there's gonna be food trucks you know, serving food, you know, to keep folks, you know keeping them energized, we're having art.

So the Art Space Lima is going to be having things for either doing a mural as well, youth activities.

So they're part of that as well.

And so there's several people involved that that are heading up certain subcommittees.

So Janeesha Williamson is heading up the youth activities portion of this.

So she's got a host of things of local authors to be able to, you know talk about what they're doing with their kids' books and things like that, you know and then really the community connection.

So there is a very, Meg Horton is heading up the the business popup tent.

There's gonna be 50 plus local vendors marketing their products, you know, black owned businesses.

Is the idea here.

So, and she's a specialist at that with getting folks to come in and, you know whether they have a full-time job and they do these things on the side, like so many people do they're, they're they're selling their items and promoting their business and really, you know, starting to generate their revenue to to grow their businesses as well.

We think that's super important piece of this.

- Yeah.

Okay.

When we come back, we can talk in more detail about some of those specific events as well back in just a moment with Marc Wright and Tiffany Ward from the Lima Juneteenth celebration.

Back in just a moment on Journal.

Thank you for staying with us here on Journal.

We're talking with the two representatives of the Lima Juneteenth celebration, which takes place on the 17th and 18th in downtown Lima.

And also at the Lima Civic Center.

We have Marc Wright and Tiffany Ward.

Marc, you were talking about the the array of events that were available and and a lot of youth activities.

So what would be some of the specific kind of things that people will find if if they bring their families down there?

Obviously, it's a family event.

There's something there for everybody, but what what more will go on on Saturday, for instance with all those different events that are taking place?

- Yeah, absolutely.

So one, one of the things is with the youth with Janeesha heading that up is, you know there's a local author, a couple of local authors, Matt Sanders, you know, just like that.

And so he, him and his daughter the author's of that book, children's book.

And so we will be spotlighting his a book signing for him and her.

And so the idea is they're, they're actually gonna do an onstage reading with fathers bringing their daughters up and they're gonna be reading certain pages of, of the book.

And, and again, it's just, it's one of the, it's it's a positive book, a role model book.

And so that, that's one of the pieces there.

There's also another author that that's, we just secured as well is also gonna be promoting her children's book as well.

Like I said, there's gonna be face painting things going on the, the Art Space Lima with promoting their, the mural that the, the children are gonna be participating in the mural.

It's really ages four and up is is that whole idea of the youth program.

So the Lima Symphony is also going to be there promoting the, the the music and, and education about, you know the importance of, of learning music and and learning how to play instruments and things like that.

So, and, and, and again, it's just, and, and then music in addition to that, so local talent art.

So that's gonna be kind of the focus and that's gonna have its own zone.

- Okay.

- Right out in front of Art Space Lima for that, for that portion.

- Yeah.

Now the mural, where, where is that going to be placed?

Where is that going to take place?

Exactly.

And will that will that be something will be there permanently then?

Or is this a temporary mural?

- Yeah, it's a temporary, so it's going to be mobile.

So that's the idea of it.

So it can go throughout the community.

- Ah - And so our partnership with, with Vibe Coffee House you know, he is going to be able to have they're gonna promote that at his coffee house as well.

So that's a really great hub for a lot of local art, music, poetry, and talent, things like that.

So, so it is gonna be a mobile thing.

So each and every, every year it's going to be able to be placed in certain areas of the the city and local businesses schools and, and whatnot.

So, so it is a mobile mural.

- And that's a, that's a really good idea because then of course you year round you're providing that, that educational experience and and information about Juneteenth.

So that's, that's a really good idea.

- Yeah.

- That's a really good idea.

Tiffany, you touched earlier on the medical engagement this the, and, and some degree mental health because that's one of the areas that, of course when we talk about health, we generally think about our physical health, but you did mention that there is gonna be some mental health discussions going on or opportunities to talk with people about that.

So could you elaborate just a little bit more about the about what you're gonna be doing with people for mental health down there at Juneteenth?

- Absolutely.

So we have a new we have a mental health Nurse Practitioner here.

Her name is Jennifer Truman.

So she has a new practice that she started up and she kind of, she deals with different diagnoses different mental health disorders.

You know, I don't wanna say the wrong thing but so I'm gonna have a lot of her information out there.

Just, you know, what all different types of things that she does treat.

Her like office hours any kind of educational material that she wants me to bring out there, I will.

I'm hoping to actually have her out there herself or someone from her team to join us so they can speak more specifically to that, but just getting her information out there to the community.

So they know there's somewhere to go somewhere to turn to if they need to.

I also will have a member from our oncology services department there, Cheryl Naggie usually has that up and she will have like different survey questions out there available.

And depending on like how the community answers those questions will depend on the type of screening or information that we give to them.

So I think that's a good opportunity for the community.

That's a big hit.

- Yeah.

- I have, my daughter actually, Anisha Ward will be out there.

She's a student nurse she'll graduate in December and she will be performing the blood pressure checks and just talking to the community about different opportunities, how her life and her experience has been here at Lima Memorial.

Just so the community knows, like we're here for the community and trying to promote community socialization, events, stuff like that.

And then I also have another, another girl her name's Ashala Cloud.

She'll be out there just to kind of talk about her life as a nurse nursing assistant here at the hospital.

And just, I don't know, just to be out there to represent and see, like, what does the community want?

What kind of questions do they have for us.

Just to get more involved in the community?

I don't Know.

- Yeah.

And, and I think that, you know you mentioned the fact that, you are doing a lot of basic things like blood pressure checks and the reality is those are the routine kind of things that a lot of us ignore, don't do.

Don't go to regular doctor's appointments that sort of thing.

But that's where you really improve.

Can, can find out something that might be going on with your health, that you don't, you feel perfectly fine but something as simple as a blood pressure check may say, oh, you know there's something maybe we should talk a little more about.

So it's a great opportunity.

Maybe reach parts of the population that maybe don't participate.

As many of us don't do as well as we should.

Seeing our doctors and getting involved in the medical system.

- Yep.

We'll also have like out there, like depending on like the blood pressure checks and stuff, if if they don't have like a primary care physician or they don't seek services we'll have someone out there available to help them get set up with whoever they choose or wherever they would like to go.

But we just wanna make sure that the community's taken care of.

- Yeah.

Absolutely.

So, so it's a perfect opportunity for someone who may be reluctant to even, afraid to find out how to get involved.

This is a perfect opportunity.

They can, they can walk up and see your folks and talk to them and and you can kind of ease them into the system a little bit.

If they've been reluctant or just figure I feel perfectly fine there's nothing wrong, but it's, yeah, it's a it's a great opportunity for them to do that.

We'll be back in just a moment here with Tiffany Ward and Marc Wright on The Journal.

We're talking about the Lima Juneteenth celebration, back in just a moment.

Thank you for staying with us here on The Journal.

Our guests are Marc Wright and Tiffany Ward, and they're here representing the Lima Juneteenth celebration.

Marc, obviously and, and in talking with both of you, both Tiffany and Marc a lot of other people a lot of other organizations are involved in in making this happen.

So talk a little about the people that are involved that we that we haven't mentioned yet.

- Yeah.

You know, I I think first and foremost, Lima Memorial health system we're happy to be a gold sponsor for this event.

And again, with the connections of their initiatives and the community that they have very very excited to have them on board and and with Tiffany's new role at the, the hospital it's a perfect fit for for what they want to do and in the community and beyond.

So it's especially, you know thankful for their involvement to, you know the apprehension of the African Americans with healthcare great connection for them, you know, Rhodes State College is another, another participant gold sponsor with what the facility that they have with the Bora building downtown.

So we're working on how we can get information or how they can get information about what is actually, what that building does.

What does it mean for this community as it relates to the health field?

So it's a beautiful state of the art facility that they're gonna be able to speak to that as well.

Wanamaker Trucking again can't thank Andy enough to, you know with that Lima Allen County Pallet, Premier Bank, Lighthouse Behavioral, Lima Refineries, Lawn Dale Smith.

He was our first, our first sponsor to come on board.

So again, he's been involved with the Juneteenth event for, for many, many years.

So Nutrient is also part of this.

Union Bank, Proctor Gamble.

They're gonna be there, you know, promoting, you know their sustainability, their, their recruitment, you know the facility that they're gonna be building.

So they're gonna have recruitment folks there, 150 employees they're gonna be recruiting for that new facility.

So it's a wonderful event for them to promote and what they're gonna bring to the table as well.

You know, Meg Horton stepped right up to this, you know with her popup business.

So she, she took on that again.

We just can't thank enough, everyone being involved in you know, it couldn't happen without our sponsors.

- Yeah.

And Tiffany, again, from, from the medical side obviously you are heavily involved and it's as we talked about earlier, a great way to reach out not just to the African American population but to the entire population in Lima.

For them to have a great walkup opportunity to to take advantage of this.

- Absolutely.

I just, they can just look for us the big healthcare opportunity zone tent out there.

I am the new Diversity Health Equity and Inclusion Manager at Lima Memorial.

So we are one of our big initiatives for this year and coming years is just to get more involved in the community and do a lot more community work.

So I just want the community to know like they can expect to see us more.

Having more events, more health fairs just more things to make our community better.

So yeah, I will be out there from 12 to six and they can come see me.

- Yeah.

And, and obviously to find out more information about, about the, the the healthcare system in Lima, online, Facebook all of that's available for people.

So if they have any questions, they can they can look online quite easily and find out more not just about this event but about everything else that you do.

- Yeah.

We have our website, limamemorial.org.

It has all of our information on there.

We also do have a Lima Memorial Facebook page as well.

So anything they wanna know any questions they have they can go there.

Or they can just call the hospital, the main number and they can ask for me if they like and they know how to get them directly to my extension.

- Yeah.

Great, fantastic.

And Marc, if people wanna find out more about this this whole event, the Juneteenth celebration in Lima, the 17th and 18th, what's the easiest way for them to find out that information.

- Yeah.

Total Juneteenth, Lima, that's our our Facebook handle, I should say.

And it's gonna have all the information about the event where it's taking place, who the sponsors are, as well as the time from noon to 6:00 PM.

It also has a link to the black and white ball.

So a little bit will just go right to the Event Bright site and, and purchase their tickets.

They, they can even, you know as far as the tickets go for the, the, the black and white ball, you know, they can even call me at at the office or the arts council as well, because they are they are the proud sponsor that the, the head of the the event, of the nonprofit.

So they can call the arts council of Great of Lima as well as, you know, our number here 4 1 9 2 3 4 3 0 0 5.

If they do want, if they don't want to go through the link we do, we are able to do the tickets.

You know, they just give us a call as well.

- Great, great.

Well, thank you so much.

Both of you for being here, Tiffany Ward, Marc Wright and best wishes on the event.

Should go, well hopefully will, the weather will be fine and you'll have a a great weekend out there and a great way to commemorate educate and, and reach out to the community with your Juneteenth celebration.

And much success with that and feel free, you know next year to get in touch with us.

And we'll be glad to talk with you again, as you as you hold next year's event.

But best of wishes for the event this year.

And, and thank you for taking the time to be with us today.

- Thank you.

- Yeah.

- Thank you very much.

- And you can check us out at wbju.org.

Of course you can watch us every Thursday night at eight o'clock on WBJU PBS.

We will see you again next time.

Good night and good luck.

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