TIMES UNION REPORTS – After going virtual in 2020, One Warsaw announced Celebrating Us will return in-person to downtown Warsaw Sept. 18.
The free celebration of inclusion will include information booths, cultural dance, music and food from 4 to 8 p.m. near the county courthouse and city hall, rain or shine.
The featured performer lineup includes Lee Anne Stewart Dance School at 4 p.m.; Ballet Folklorico at 4:20 p.m.; Flostorm at 4:40 p.m.; Debra Collier’s School of Dance at 5 p.m.; South Bend Latin Dance at 5:30 p.m.; Gary Gerard Group at 6 p.m.; Charles Cotton saxophone at 6:30 p.m.; Omotayo Rite of Passage at 7 p.m.; and Kyle Jackson from James and the Drifters at 7:30 p.m.
One Warsaw President Travis McConnell said a great committee was able to put the lineup together.
“I’m super grateful for our board members that have really done a lot,” he said.
As for food, One Ten Craft Meatery will serve locally-sourced authentic foods. Biryani Kitchen will have authentic Indian cuisine with vegan options. Tacos Jaliscos food truck will have Mexican options, while Bomi’s Authentic Indian food will offer vegetarian options. Big C’s BBQ will have pulled meats and other eats.
Celebrating Us grew out of what used to be the diversity rally. “But we quickly decided to shift more away from speeches and preaches and do more of a family festival, get people together, enjoy time with music and performers and things like that,” he said.
In 2019, the first year for the event, McConnell estimated 200 to 300 people came out.
The event has always been two weeks after Labor Day to give people a weekend off, he said. “We originally started then because there wasn’t a lot of activity during September. We wanted to provide something for people to do when there wasn’t a lot going on, but there’s actually quite a bit going on in September. I think people are just kind of pent up from COVID and they’re ready to do stuff so there’s lots of things happening,” he said.
As for the information booths, One Warsaw will have one, as well as Cardinal Services, Warsaw Community Schools, Ivy Tech, OrthoWorx, Bowen Center and more.
“The idea with the booths is there’s a variety of booths for different organizations that are working to make the community a better place, for usually a particular target audience, and the idea is to bring all the different groups together and celebrate everybody,” he said.
There will be a dunk tank again for the public to get people like McConnell or Jeff Owens wet.
McConnell said that while the event didn’t get to grow a lot last year because of the pandemic, One Warsaw has.
“Our board is a full board now, with 15 different people instead of, we started out as myself and then a couple of other people that (we) quickly roped into it to have a board of seven or eight. So the board is a full board of 15 now. Lots more people involved. There’s more sponsors involved this year, and more partnerships in the community,” he said.
The big news from the Juneteenth celebration is that Zimmer Biomet’s employee resource group African and Black Leadership for Excellence (ABLE) came out and supported One Warsaw and gave One Warsaw a donation “which was unexpected and a nice surprise,” McConnell said.
ABLE will be at the Celebrating Us event Sept. 18, he said, along with two other Zimmer Biomet employee resource groups – Exhale, for LGBTQ+ allies; and ASIAN (All together Stronger and Inclusive Asian Network).
1st Source Bank and Old National Bank are supporting the event again, McConnell said, “as well as a number of other people.”
The Kosciusko County Community Foundation is a sponsor this year, as are Bowen Center, the Natasha Hernandez Team, The Lab, EnPak, Woodworks; Reinholt’s is providing raffle items; Three Crowns Coffee is supplying gift cards; McConnell’s law office; Green Earth Multi-sport; 24/7 Cars; La Casa Amistad; Scott Clay is providing some raffle items; Clear Vision Media; Eastlake Skate is supplying bounce houses for kids; Nathan Underneath from Moving Pictures Tattoo Cinema is providing some face drawings; JB’s Furniture and Wong’s are providing contributions; as well as Garza Law Office and Kathy Hamman RE/MAX Results.
As One Warsaw’s presence has grown, so has awareness of the non-profit. “More people are coming to us now. They’re reaching out and are like, ‘Hey, we heard what you’re doing and want to be a part of it,’” McConnell said.
The Zimmer Biomet groups reached out to One Warsaw via email and several people came to one of their meetings. The Zimmer Biomet people liked what they saw and heard and decided they wanted to be a part of it.
“I like to think we’re trying it make (the community) a more inclusive place for everybody. That’s kind of our mission, to inspire inclusion throughout the county. I think it ebbs and flows, and there’s been pushback along the way. And there have been people that they didn’t want to be involved because of XYZ … but it’s fewer and fewer that we hear about. And there’s a lot of support from the community at large,” McConnell said. “If you look at national polling and things like that, people are becoming more and more inclusive on a wide spread of things.”
To learn more about the One Warsaw board, how to help or more information about the Celebrating Us event, visit https://onewarsaw.org/.
Donations for One Warsaw or toward the event can be made through the website or by sending a check to 116 N. Buffalo St., Warsaw, IN 46580.
If anyone wants a booth, McConnell said the rental fee is $25 for a table and chair and can be requested by email at info@onewarsaw.org.
T-shirts will be available for sale at Celebrate Us.
