Fredericksburg Pride, a non-profit organization dedicated to forming a safe and welcoming environment for LGBTQIA+ people, held its second annual pride march and festival in downtown Fredericksburg.
The festival in Old Mill Park on the banks of the Rappahannock River attracted hundreds of people. At the event, several local vendors, businesses, and organizations came to celebrate alongside its local LGBTQIA+ community, which offered food, prizes, music, entertainment, and other items for sale to festival attendees.
The 2021 festival attracted 53 vendors, and over 100 vendors participated in this year's festival. According to Meegana Henry, Founder and President of Fredericksburg Pride, the event took a whole year to plan. It gained double the number of vendors compared to last year when the festival was held in Maury Playground Park.
"It's been a really great show of support from the community, the business, from the residents, from the volunteers," said Katie Jones, Vice President of Fredericksburg Pride. "We've had such a good outreach to support the event and to support the community. It's been fantastic."
Other affiliated organizations showed up at the festival to participate and support the community. Among those organizations was the Rappahannock Region Transgender Support, a group dedicated to helping people who fall under the transgender umbrella. The group also ran a clothing swap booth at the festival, which offered clothing for transgender people in their sizes.
"For a lot of people, this is their first pride festival, and the fun part is watching them because these are people that are closeted, they haven't come out, or they're just starting to come out to their friends, and they're family, said Dani Butler, the group's founder. "And that's hard because not everybody understands, not everybody accepts, and they come down here, and everybody here is affirming and accepting. We know it's hard. We've been there, done that, and got the t-shirt."
Another organization present at the festival was Free Mom Hugs, a national non-profit organization dedicated to offering support to LGBTQIA+ youth who are revealing they are gay.
"We wish that our organization didn't need to exist, but we see the need out here. We've given out a lot of hugs, and it's clear that support is needed," said Kelly MacCleary, a member of the organization's local chapter. "So we'll be around until support isn't needed."
Another organization present at the event was the Rappahannock Council Against Sexual Assault which provided support, treatment, and advocacy to persons affected by sexual assault.
"We find it very important to represent our community, be out, provide support for everyone, and sexual violence is, unfortunately, one of those things that do not discriminate, said Meghan Cole, the group's community service specialist. LGBTQ individuals do face sexual violence at a disproportionate rate, and we want to provide some resources to them."
Fredericksburg Pride President Meegana Henry told Potomac Local News that changes are planned for next year's festival to accommodate more people, vendors, and other potential ideas.
Governor Glenn Youngkin rallied at The Harbour Grille in Woodbridge to tout the new state budget, which he recently signed. Youngkin announced that the budget would give millions in funding to schools, police, and mental health treatment.
Toward the end of his speech, Youngkin took time to chastise senate Democrats in the Virginia General Assembly for not agreeing to a suspension of the state's gas tax.
Youngkin expressed his disappointment that an agreement could not be reached with senate Democrats to deal with the rising gas price in a time of inflation being felt across the world.
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Some Stafford County residents have been experiencing issues with trash collection.
One of the trash haulers contracted to do business in the county, GFL Environmental, has attributed the problems to issues with its routing system.
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Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) spoke at a rally for Republican candidate Yesli Vega on Monday, June 20, on the eve of her run for the seventh Congressional District seat.
The Texas senator spoke at the Crosswoods Baptist Church rally, where he publicly endorsed Vega in her run for the seventh district. Vega, the current Coles District Supervisor in Prince William County, was born and raised in Texas before moving to Virginia.
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Editors note: This is the latest in a series of profiles highlighting the candidates running in a June 21 Republican Primary Election in Virginia's 7th Congressional District.
A former Army Ranger and lawyer seeks the Republican nomination to run for the 7th Congressional District seat.
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Editors note: This is the latest in a series of profiles highlighting the candidates running in a June 21 Republican Primary Election in Virginia's 7th Congressional District.
Crystal Vanuch, the chair of the Stafford County Board of Supervisors is running in a June 21 Primary Election to become the Republican nominee for the newly redrawn 7th congressional district.
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The Fredericksburg City Council has adopted a new master plan for parks and recreation that calls for a new community center that could be located along Interstate 95.
A community center is the centerpiece of the master plan. The size and offerings of the new center would be based on the growing population and the desires of residents on what programs they would like to have at the center.
The conception of the new center would include offices for the Fredericksburg Parks, Recreation, and Entertainment Department, a gymnasium with multi-use courts, a wellness room, aerobics studio, locker rooms, concessions, a playroom, a game room, and a multi-purpose room for programming and rentals.
The master plan suggests stationing the new community center along the Interstate 95 corridor between Plank Road and Cowan Boulevard. The center's placement intends to serve highly populated areas of Fredericksburg and areas where parks may not be nearby.
The plan also suggests that the center's location could help attract sports tourism to the local area.
Lose Design, the Tennessee-based company that conducted the study and formulated the master plan estimated that constructing the new center would cost $10 million. Lose further estimates that the center could potentially cost $20-35 million if Fredericksburg decided to add an aquatics facility to the center.
The estimates made by Lose were based on a previous community center constructed by the company.
The study also suggests that the new offices could potentially allow for the repurposing or selling of the Dorothy Hart Community Center. According to the report, if the center was sold, then the profits could offset the costs of the new center.
No member of the Fredericksburg City Council has mentioned a potential sale of the Dorothy Hart Community Center for any purpose as of this report.
The master plan was commissioned to find and survey the needs of Fredericksburg's parks and recreation over the next 10 years. Conducted by Lose Design, surveys and studies were used to put together a comprehensive plan that would guide Fredericksburg on how to proceed with the development of new parks and the upkeep of its current parks.
The study had some delays due to the coronavirus pandemic, which kept it from being completed before 2022.
Both Fredericksburg and nearby Stafford County have been discussing local parks and recreation. Stafford County decided to charge visitors a $20 parking fee to Historic Port of Falmouth, a riverside park across from Fredericksburg. Non-Stafford County residents will pay the fee.
Stafford County Board of Supervisors and the Stafford County School Board came together to break ground for new turf fields at two high schools.
A ceremony was held at the AJ Slye Memorial Stadium behind North Stafford High School to celebrate a new turf field that is expected to be completed before the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year.
The new turf fields will replace the grass fields where football and field hockey are played. Concerns about the safety of the fields and equity between schools in the county were arguments presented in a grassroots campaign spearheaded by Carol Leicher and Margaret Lowery. Both women had been assistant coaches for the girls' field hockey teams at North Stafford.
"We watched the girls struggle and listened to visiting teams such as Stafford and Mountain View come and listened to coaches, players, and parents from those schools complain about 'oh we got to play on grass," said Lowery. "Our girls had the advantage of playing on grass, but when they went away to every other school other than Colonial Forge, nobody in Division Five or Six plays on grass anymore."
While both Lowery and Leicher spearheaded the campaign, it was when the duo made their arguments to the county School Board and Board of Supervisors. Eventually, their efforts began to bore fruit. Officials found funds to accommodate the two schools, which the Board approved by Supervisors on April 12.
At the ceremony, Lowery acknowledged that while she and Leicher drove the campaign, it was more than just the duo that made the event happen.
"We spearheaded it, but the parents got together, they started contacting the supervisors and the school board, " said Lowery. "Ultimately, it was the School Board and the Supervisors who both went through a lot of discussions. They didn't make a quick decision, and the credit goes to those two boards together. We got it started, but those boards are the ones that made it happen."
North Stafford and Colonial Forge were the last two high schools in the county to have turf fields installed. Before then, the schools had to either make do with the grass fields, which inhibited the teams' ability to play on turf fields or rent such fields elsewhere.
The fields are scheduled to be completed by August before the 2022-2023 Fall semester begins for the county schools on August 9, 2022.
Editors note: This is the latest in a series of profiles highlighting the candidates running in a June 21 Republican Primary Election in Virginia's 7th Congressional District.
As her Primary campaign nears the finish line, Yesli Vega unveiled a personal story.
In 2005, her brother 15-year-old brother Eric and his friend were outside of an apartment building near Alexandira waiting for a friend. Out of nowhere, an MS-13 gang member shot them. Eric was hit twice and survived, while his friend, Anthony, was murdered.
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The Stafford County Board of Supervisors discussed considering changing the timeframe that it does tax assessments from bi-annual to annual.
Griffis-Widewater District Supervisor Tinesha Allen brought up the item, who received complaints from constituents about why their tax assessments were so high. Allen asked for the time to call on the county's Commissioner of the Revenue, Scott Mayausky, about the potential effects of a switch-over in the assessment timeframe.
