Community First: Jubilee Event Sees High Turnout with Public Servants in Attendance

When asked to describe the annual Jubilee event, Nichole Johns’s first word was community. In October, the track adjacent to the Health and Human Services Complex becomes an outpouring of love that Johns, who works with the Department of Social Services, helps bring to life. Vendors, departments, and other community players gather around the track, where a bounce house and a wide variety of games give children the chance to play. Community servants, including fire and rescue and the police, were there, underscoring the event’s importance. When asked about their role, fire and rescue said they would be handing out candy. And keeping everyone safe? That too!

Avery Sealock, a recent graduate of Skyline High School, represented Belle for the Shenandoah Carriage Company at the yearly Jubilee event organized by the Department of Social Services. Royal Examiner Photo Credits: Brenden McHugh

With games and a bounce house, the Jubilee event offered a wide variety of entertainment for children.

The event is rooted in memory. Many who attended, like Johns, went to school in Warren County and now serve the community that served them. Attending Jubilee is a chance to see familiar faces and introduce the next generation to a scene where, one day, many of those children will be the ones doing the exposing. I could be a police officer! I could be a firefighter! These are realizations that the youth may be having. But they may not appreciate yet how much they are being protected. The Warren County Fire and Rescue Services articulates its mission as “To deliver the highest level of service and perform at our best to those in need at their worst.” To that end, many service providers operate in this community, including the Warren Coalition, which meets people at their lowest point to provide protection and help them rise.

DSS workers Michelle Smeltzer (L) and Nichole Johns (R) attended a highly successful Jubilee event held at the track adjacent to the Health and Human Services Complex.

Johns emphasized the importance of running the event as smoothly as possible, with every contributor helping create a happy memory for everyone in attendance. This wouldn’t be possible without the team spirit that characterized the evening, featuring a wide variety of community contributors, each providing something irreplaceable. What could seem like any other evening could be pathbreaking in a child’s mind. On that ordinary track, enlivened by children having a good time, many stories became one story as individuals blended with community, the future seeming, in that moment, not dark, but full of possibility. For many years to come, Jubilee will live up to its name: a blissful evening that will, in the final analysis, become a remembrance.

Fire and Rescue handed out candy and kept everyone safe.