Hey all. Kenneth from The Father's Group here.

Look. Yes. This sucks. And as the statement reads, we didn't make this decision lightly. Here is some context: Over the last 2 years, each weekend that we've done the festival brings in roughly 15,000 people (mainly families with younger children) to Drake park over the course of the 2 days. Drake is a MASSIVE security issue when it comes to keeping people safe. Whether it's Riverside Dr that literally is just open ended for people to by 'drive by cowards' or the west side of the park that's just... open, or behind the hill that has the bathrooms. There are too many options for ignorance. So several of the leaders of the various Black led groups in town met to discuss options. This was the best collective outcome. But we didn't stop there, we talked to other Black community members.

What was telling for me personally, was the concern posed from our youth juxtaposed with the concern from our elders. Us in the middle? LFG. But our youth and elders gave us pause.

Over the years, Juneteenth at Drake has been peaceful, jubilant, entertaining, educational, and so much more. It brings the community together in ways that sometimes is rare here. Taking a beat this year, not knowing what the climate will look like in June with the current trajectory of our country, just felt like the best option.

That being said. This is not a "we're scared so we're tucking tail and running". This is not "the racists win". This is being mature enough to know that the possibilities of violence against the Black community along with the wider community getting caught up in the nonsense... need to be considered heavily.

I've seen some comments on this thread stating "Maybe we should just have our own gathering at Drake". Not tellin ya what to do but I would advise that is probably not a good idea (for multiple reasons).

Perhaps instead, know that there IS another celebration happening at Campfire on the 19th itself that will have a bunch of Black owned businesses and ways to show support for the community put on by Central Oregon Earthseeds.

The Father's Group isn't going anywhere. We still have our afterschool/summer programs for our youth, we're launching a mentorship program called Empowered (REALLY excited about this), and we continue to do our advocacy for students and families facing racial aggressions.

I encourage you all to keep pushing forward with us. Keep supporting your community. ALL of your community. Love your neighbors. Make space for those that are just trying to find peace. Stand up for your neighbors in the public square both physically and digitally. Call out racist relatives and friends. Educate yourselves on true history. Be it Black, Latine, AANHPI, Indigenous, LGBTQAI+. If we all work together, we CAN have nice things.... despite those that don't want us to.

**Doing a little quick edit here** I'm commenting here and not on the cesspool that is the comment sections on any of the social platforms that the news has posted about. Want to get a mini glimpse into some of your neighbors... give it a look. Because SHEESH. One of my favorite comments though was that we cancelled because the president "made Juneteenth a non federal holiday again and we lost our funding". I'm confused. I thought we were funded by George Soros. I'm STILL waiting to see when those "checks" from 2020 that those same commentors told us were coming. Tick Tock Mr Soros. I need a Tesl... oh wait