Eliberto Mendoza is in a race to eat a doughnut on a string without using his hands. Landline Doughnuts of Longmont sponsored the event. Longmont’s annual Unity in the Community festival happened on Friday. It celebrates the people and organizations that make the city thrive. (Cliff Grassmick — Staff Photographer)
Moved to October this year, the annual Unity in the Community festival brought thousands of guests outside Friday evening to celebrate the people and groups that make Longmont special.
From 4 to 9 p.m., the intersection of Fourth Avenue and Kimbark Street was lined with over 100 booths representing nonprofits, businesses and other organizations in the city. Scott Cook, CEO of the Longmont Area Chamber of Commerce, said the Chamber puts on the event to show how businesses get involved with and support the greater Longmont community.
“Unity’s been going on for over 20 years now, and it grows every year,” Cook said. “The feedback that we’ve gotten and the response that we’ve gotten tells us that this is something the community really enjoys.”
The festival’s original August date was postponed due to rainy weather, but Friday evening’s clear skies drew a big crowd even within the first hour.
“Whenever you reschedule any event, there’s always a concern that not everybody will be able to turn out,” Cook said. “… It seems like the word got out to the community, so we are excited.”
To account for the darkness, the Chamber was able to secure lighting from local business partners, including Ace Hardware and Blingle. At sunset, the intersection came to life as glow sticks turned on and tents sparkled with colorful string lights.
Cory Yocham, general manager of Blingle, said providing floodlights for the event allowed the company to have a vendor presence at Unity this year.
“We definitely try to make sure that we have a good, strong foundation of community involvement and philanthropy,” Yocham said.
Also aglow was the “giving tower,” a component of the event’s Unity Funds the Community grant. The $1,000 grant is administered to five local nonprofits, each of which receives additional funding from drink token sales based on the votes of Unity guests.
As of about 5:30 p.m. Friday, El Comité de Longmont was leading its fellow grant recipients in votes from the tower.
“It’s amazing to be in that position, because without the grants, we wouldn’t be in operation,” said Jeanette Madrid, lead case manager for El Comité. “It shows that we’re getting our name out there, and we’re growing.”
A couple of new additions to the festival were a donut-eating activity and a “tiny deck concert,” which featured music performances on the patio of Longmont Public Media. High Plains Bank, the presenting sponsor, also put proceeds from T-shirt sales on Friday toward the Unity Funds the Community grant for the first time.
High Plains Bank representative Michelle Hovdesven said Unity in the Community is all about bringing people together.
“We’re just happy that it could happen,” she said. “It kind of is the one event that actually checks all the boxes for how I would define community.”
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