HOLLAND (WHTC-AM/FM) — For 19 years, Holland has celebrated Juneteenth in one way or another, most-recently as the Family Freedom Festival in 2019. (See the photo gallery.)
This year, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s no festival at Kollen Park. Instead, Maple Avenue Ministries’ pastor, the Rev. Denise Kingdom Grier, invited Holland-area black owned businesses to set up a booth or table at her chruch’s parking lot from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, June 20, 2020.
It’s a chance for area residents to support small businesses hard-hit by the pandemic, as well as a time to show support for Holland’s African-American community at a time when Black Lives Matter events are happening across the country, on the heels of another series of highly publicized police-involved deaths of African-Americans.
Though the event is outside, masks and social distancing is encouraged. Maple Avenue Ministries is at 427 Maple Ave., between 17th and 18th streets, in Holland.
