DANVILLE — Danville’s Juneteenth celebration may have just wrapped, but organizer Chris Hightower is already thinking ahead.
“We set the bar this year,’ he said. “Next year we want it even bigger and better.”
The multi-day celebration featured Danville’s first Miss Juneteenth pageant, a packed Saturday full of activities and food in Ellsworth Park drawing hundreds of people, and while the rain did put a damper on Sunday’s events, Hightower says it was a great weekend.
“Next year the pageant will be on Friday, the celebration will be in the park Saturday and Sunday we’re going to do church in the park,” Hightower said.
Serenity Reed, a recent Danville High graduate, was crowned the Queen at Miss Juneteenth.
“Crowning Danville’s very first Miss Juneteenth was really exciting… but also just being able to go out into the park and hang out and fellowship and be together,” Hightower said.
Reed will be attending Bradley University in the fall.
“I just kind of went in for just a learning experience, because I feel like I plan to do pageants in the near future as well,” Reed said. “I just thought, whether I won or not, I’m just glad that I got to do it, and be part of the first group of girls to even start something like this.”
Reed says her favorite part of the experience was the 1990s decade theme, where she showed off her personality along with a bit of fun with a jersey shirt, wide-leg pants, and a bandana, fitting for anyone trying to portray a member of TLC, a popular 1990s all-girls band.
For Reed, this was not her first time competing. She started her pageant journey last year with the Vermilion County Fair, and she encourages others to join.
“Go for it, because the pageant experience is really not even just about the placement or whether or not you get the crown — it’s about the growth that you make and the connections that you make,” Reed says. “If you’re unsure, and you don’t feel like you’re confident enough to do it, that should give you every reason to do it anyway, because it’s meant to really build your confidence.”
Reed added that the experience has led to connecting with professionals. And she plans to major in biomedical science on a pre-med track, while minoring in both Spanish and African-American studies.
She is also competing again in the Vermilion County Fair Pageant this week.
Hightower says the Juneteenth weekend-long event was a success and shows the community that blackness does not equal violence.
“A lot of times when Black people come together to have these types of events, people get nervous and say there’s going to be violence, and that’s just not true,” Hightower said. “This weekend was an example that we can come together, bring out the entire community — all shades, all ages — and celebrate and have a good time.”
Hightower added to stay tuned for a Danville Awards Grammy’s-esque style event coming up later this year.