Saturday, October 18, marked the date of the 7th annual North Highlands Jubilee. It was a beautiful day for families from all over the Northern Sacramento area to come out and enjoy this ever growing community event.
The Jubilee, which took place at the North Highlands Community Center located on Watt avenue, was held from 11 am - 3 pm and attended by over 4,500 people.
The main goal of the creators of what is being called North Highland’s biggest annual event is to have a day that is very community oriented. A large portion of the participants were businesses and organizations from the area and the food vendors were all local restaurants, including G-Dubbs which serves up some mean tri-tip and. The entertainment was comprised of local favorites, including the sensational Dave Russell Band, who got the crowd really going with some good soundin’ country music! So many organizations wanted to participate this year that the Community Center was not able to accommodate all of them. However, when I asked the leading man of the event, County Supervisor Roger Dickinson, if they would consider changing locations, he said it was unlikely as they want to remain at the heart of North Highlands.
The Jubilee was great fun for all ages. The welcoming booth at the front entrance was able to provide directions for anyone who had a specific destination in mind. They also handed out passports which listed a large number of the booths and if you were able to get all the booths to sign off next to their name a prize was awarded.
One of the best parts about the Jubilee is that the majority of the booths had something to hand out. Bright Futures, which is an organization which provides free health screening for vision and dental, was handing out free tooth brushes and tooth paste. Sacramento Suburban Water, which was set up next to our own North Sac News booth, gave away large bags filled with great items like water control timers and spray heads for hoses.
A lot of hard work and planning went into this event. The planning committee spends about 8-months a year planning this event and it continues to grow and get better every year. Approximately $25,000 was collected to fund the non-profit event and allowed for advertisement and made provided the equipment for the tables and shelters for the 130 organizations who participated. There was no charge for the vendors to participate because it is more important that everyone is able to be involved; however to ensure a spot it’s necessary to commit to the event 5-6 months in advance due to the huge growth over the course of seven years.
It’s definitely an event worth the effort to come out and show your community spirit. There may be services in our community that you aren’t aware of, such as the library on wheels that provides books for children and shut ins, a great child-care and educational facility in the Family
Learning Center located on the corner of Watt and I street, and a local adult literacy program which provides one on one tutors and live online help.
Roger Dickinson was really excited that it all came together bigger and better than ever before and hopes this will become a signature occasion for the community, where people from all walks of life can come and have a good time. He hopes that the Jubilee will help build identity, a sense of pride, and to help people recognize just how great our community really is.