Category Archives: Holiday

Williams Aquatic Center opens Memorial weekend

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wac-01WILLIAMS – Despite the water shortage, the Williams Aquatic Center will open at the end of the month with a free swim.

The Friends of the Williams Aquatic Center will hold a Hawaiian party to celebrate the opening of the pool just after the Memorial Day parade. The Friends hold golf tournaments and other activities throughout the year to help keep the pool open and provide activities, such as swimming lessons, once it is opened.

The City of Williams generally provides free swim days when the pool is open, such as on Independence Day. The pool is located at 320 Railroad Avenue next to the Recreation Center.

Run for the Wall reminds us of what Memorial day is about

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somegaveallWILLIAMS – While most Americans feel that Memorial Day is to mark the beginning of summer and barbeque season, there are those who actively participate in what Memorial Day was actually meant to be. The day is meant to honor the approximate 7% of those Americans who have actually served and are serving to keep this country free from tyranny.

In about a week, the motorcycle riders of Run for the Wall will arrive in Williams once again. The Run for the Wall mission actually consists of three routes with the Central route making its first stop in Williams at the Cordova Post American Legion Hall.

Run For The Wall (RFTW) was started in 1989 by Vietnam veterans James Gregory and Bill Evans. The mission is to promote healing among all veterans and their families and friends and to call for an accounting of all still listed as prisoners of war (POW) or missing in action (MIA).

Sergeant Bowe R. Bergdahl of Idaho is still a prisoner of war in Afghanistan.

The ride consists mostly of Vietnam veterans, but younger veterans are invited and are starting to answer the call. Some riders are not veterans, but are friends, relatives and others who want to honor those who gave all.

The run begins on the 14th, this year, and the riders usually begin arriving between 4 and 5 pm. The American Legion Cordova Post #13 in Williams hosts a barbeque for the group between 7 and 8 pm. The riders then rest up for the continuation of their ride through New Mexico. The three routes converge in Washington, D.C. at the Vietnam Veteran’s Wall memorial for the Memorial weekend.

The group Rolling Thunder, founded about the same time, makes a Memorial Day run to Washington, D.C. as well. Their mission to bring attention the POW/MIAs is the same as Run for the Wall.

Their motto—We ride for those who can’t—indicates the fact that they ride in honor of those fallen heroes killed in action and those serving in the active duty military, as well as the POW/MIAs.
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American Pastor Saeed Writes Easter Message as a Prisoner in the Darkness of Iran

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American Pastor Saeed Abedini wrote the following Easter message from his hospital room serving an eight year sentence for his Christian faith in Iran.

Read the message at the American Center for Law and Justice blog.

Weather may not cooperate this Easter weekend.

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Williams Easter Egg Hunt 2012WILLIAMS – While there will be a lot to do this Easter weekend, many activities may have to move indoors because of the weekend weather. The Weather Service predicts rain Friday and Saturday clearing by Sunday.

The weather service predicts a 40% chance of rain Friday with gusts of wind possible up to 29 mph after 11 am. The chance decreases to 30% Friday night and Saturday after 11 am. Thunderstorms are possible both days. The last two predictions of rain brought very little wet weather into the area, however.

The weekend begins with Friday Good Friday service is at the church at the First Baptist Church and Saint Joseph Catholic Church.

On Saturday Williams Parks and Recreation will host the annual city Easter egg hunt at the Youth Center. The event will run from 11 am to 2 pm. In addition, the Grand Canyon National Park entry is free this Saturday the 19th.

Sunday of course Churches will probably host Easter egg hunts of their own after services.

Love in bloom

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This column first appeared in Stars and Stripes on Feb. 8, 2011. It is now part of an upcoming book by Terri Barnes, “Spouse Calls: Messages From a Military Life,” (Elva Resa Publishing) available March 1.

By Terri Barnes

The sign said “One dozen Roses — Only $6 for Valentine’s Day delivery.” What was an 11-year-old to think?

He figured he had more than enough.

Quite a few bills and coins rustled and rattled in the jar he used for his savings, left over from cash sent by grandparents for his birthday and Christmas. He knew he had way more than six dollars.

He probably spread the money out on his bed, counting it carefully before putting it all in his jeans pocket.

It’s likely his mom thought he was off to play with the neighborhood boys when he hopped on his bike and headed down the street.

The flower shop wasn’t too far away. He didn’t even have to cross a big street to get there. He only had to follow the residential streets for a couple of blocks, then cut across on the dirt road that came up behind the shopping center.

His mom sometimes let him go that far anyway, he reasoned, to skateboard in the parking lot or buy candy and a Coke at the convenience store. Maybe she wouldn’t mind — if she found out.

He parked his bike and went inside.

Read more at Stars and Stripes

Treeson in Williams! (Again)

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131130-066WILLIAMS—Williams lit the city Christmas tree to highlight its Mountain Village Holiday. The event kicked off with the annual Parade of Lights leading to the lighting by Mayor John Moore and Santa Clause. While the crowd waited they sipped hot chocolate and cokes handed out free by the Grand Canyon Railway which runs the Polar Express.

Mayor John Moore scans the crowd for Santa after the parade no doubt wondering if he is on the "naughty" list.

Mayor John Moore scans the crowd for Santa after the parade no doubt wondering if he is on the “naughty” list.

The parade this year was one of the best. Lasting almost an hour entries can from Flagstaff and Williams. And there were plenty of fire trucks from Williams, Junipine and the forest service. Churches from Williams also came out to celebrate the birth of the Savior.

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Mayor John Moore and Santa countdown to the ceremonial lighting of the tree.

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IS IT REALLY 79,000 YEARS until the next Thanksgivukkah?

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I was astounded to read that this rare event – Thanksgiving and Hanukkah – might not occur again for 79,000 years! Here’s why:

Well, almost never. If the Jews don’t ever abandon the calculations based on the Shmuelian calendar, Hanukkah will keep getting later and later — moving through winter, then into spring, summer, and finally back into fall — so that tens of thousands of years from now they will again coincide. But long before then the springtime holiday of Passover will have moved deep into summer, so be on the lookout for a memo with a calendar update in the next several thousand years.

But another source (A Jewish source) says it will be 2070AD! But it will be the next to last time.

You’ll notice that these dates are getting further and further apart. That’s not just FDR’s fault. Both the Gregorian calendar and the Jewish calendar are slowly drifting in relation to the actual solar year—but at different rates. After 2165, Chanukah would have completely drifted out of November—unless one of these calendars (or Thanksgiving) is changed.

More at Virginia Right

Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamations

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By the President of the United States of America.

Proclamation 118 – Thanksgiving Day, 1864
October 20, 1864

By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

It has pleased Almighty God to prolong our national life another year, defending us with His guardian care against unfriendly designs from abroad and vouchsafing to us in His mercy many and signal victories over the enemy, who is of our own household. It has also pleased our Heavenly Father to favor as well our citizens in their homes as our soldiers in their camps and our sailors on the rivers and seas with unusual health. He has largely augmented our free population by emancipation and by immigration, while He has opened to us new sources of wealth and has crowned the labor of our workingmen in every department of industry with abundant rewards. Moreover, He has been pleased to animate and inspire our minds and hearts with fortitude, courage, and resolution sufficient for the great trial of civil war into which we have been brought by our adherence as a nation to the cause of freedom and humanity, and to afford to us reasonable hopes of an ultimate and happy deliverance from all our dangers and afflictions:

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do hereby appoint and set apart the last Thursday in November next as a day which I desire to be observed by all my fellow-citizens, wherever they may then be, as a day of thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God, the beneficent Creator and Ruler of the Universe. And I do further recommend to my fellow-citizens aforesaid that on that occasion they do reverently humble themselves in the dust and from thence offer up penitent and fervent prayers and supplications to the Great Disposer of Events for a return of the inestimable blessings of peace, union, and harmony throughout the land which it has pleased Him to assign as a dwelling place for ourselves and for our posterity throughout all generations.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this 20th day of October, A.D. 1864, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-ninth.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By the President:
WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
Secretary of State.
The American President Project