By MATT PIKE
On the weekend of Patriot Day, the anniversary of the September 11th attacks, the city of St. Joseph along with the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce spent time celebrating the cities military members.
On September 12th, the inagural Freedomfest event was held at the Civic Arena in downtown St. Joseph. The event brought together over 900 military members from the 139th Airlift Group along with members of the 35th Infantry Division of the Missouri Army National Guard for an evening filled with food trucks, games, and giveaways from local businesses around St. Joseph.
St. Joseph City Manager Mike Schumacher says the event was a very proud moment for St. Joseph.
"When the business community came together so aggresively to support the items that were given away, which really covered the gamut, there was incredible prizes that all went directly to those soldiers and airmen," Schumacher says on the KFEQmunnity show. "And then money, so they all got to eat, we had five or six food trucks so they can just pull a voucher and go up there and get lunch or dinner, games, it was just really a great event."
The event was originally scheduled to take place at the airfield at Rosecrans Memorial Airport, where the 139th Airlift Group is based, but weather forced the shift inside the Civic Arena. Despite the move, Schumacher says everyone still had a great time at the event and enjoyed the prizes that were won.
"When some of those folks won the prizes that our business community was generous enough to donate to this event, it was very easy to see how much that meant to them," Schumacher explains. "And to see how much they could use what they won, there were even tears in some cases at what some folks won."
In all more than $25,000 in giveaways were won by servicemembers in St. Joseph during the first event. Schumacher says with the success of the event, the hope is that it will continue to grow as there are plans to continue the event next year.
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