On Tuesday evening, 20 community members gathered in the El Dorado Civic Center to discuss the future and viability of the Celebration of Freedom. The discussion came at the request of the event’s regular coordinators, who are looking to discern what direction the Veteran’s Day project needs to take, or in fact, whether it ought to continue at all.

Hosted by Celebration leader Bill Mason, a Kansas Representative who retired in early 2005, and moderated by Becky Wolfe, executive director of Leadership Butler and “professional volunteer,” the panel was asked three questions for the sake of discussion:

“What is the impact of Celebration of Freedom in the community and beyond?”

“What are the challenges?”

“Where do we go from here?”

Yesterday, the Times reported the first part of the group’s discussion regarding the impact of Celebration of Freedom. What follows is the remainder of that discussion, beginning with the challenges facing the committee.

Lewie Cooper said the age and number of volunteers is a concern.

“The reason they aren’t reproducing theirself is because there’s so much down here for people to do that they’re not committed,” Cooper said.

“It is the same group of people doing everything in this community,” said Debra Lynch.

“And that group is getting older,” said Allen Cooley.

“Absolutely, positively,” Lynch said. “Where is everybody else?”

“We’ve done it so many years in the past, it’s easier to go ahead and do it yourself than to try to get somebody else to do it for you,” said Cooper, a long-time volunteer for the event.

Lynn Creed intimated a Native American saying that he felt summed up the situation.

“We have the old men for council,” he said. “And we have the young men for war.
“I think our problem in this organization is we need some young men that’s willing to carry the ball. You’ve got to have renewal in a group all the time.” 

“Who’s going to carry the flag?” asked Jean Plummer. “That was probably our number one concern, sustainability.”

“You look at the community impact and you look at the challenges there,” Wolfe said. “Weighing the pros and the cons, does this continue? How do you empower people to want to be involved in something like this? That is the key.

“I want you now to talk about where we go from here,” she said. “Do we keep doing it? What’s our next step? Where are we going?”

“I don’t think there’s anybody in this room that wouldn’t like to see this continue,” said Neil Buckman.

“You need to evaluate exactly where you want to go from here, where you’ve been and what you’re trying to come up with,” Lynch said. “I think that’s way you’re going to make the decisions.”

The group also discussed the possibility of setting up a hierarchical structure to the committee, giving way to the benefits of setting the organization up as a 501c3 non-profit group.

“The 501c3, again, it’s a lot of paperwork and there is a cost to it,” Wolfe said. “I don’t think you would regret doing that.”

“What that forces you to do is organize and have a board,” Mason said.

Many ideas were tossed around, rounding the conversation out at just about two hours. Mason thanked the participants for their ideas and summed up his thoughts.

“We get volunteers. We need folks that are going to get in this organization chart and be able to lead for a number of years,” Mason said, “not necessarily in any particular chair, but willing to stay the course and guide and direct.”

Though no action was taken at the meeting, the ideas culled from the meeting will help set the organization on a new path for this year.

The Celebration of Freedom committee is slated to meet again at 5 p.m. Jan. 31 at the Civic Center.