This is the philosophy behind Carrboro Day, as adopted by the Carrboro Board of Aldermen on December 6, 1994.
As Carrboro grows in population and its boundaries expand, its citizens need opportunities to enlarge their circle of acquaintances as well as to feel part of the entire community. Expanding acquaintances and feeling part of Carrboro engenders cooperation, respect and a sense of tradition and history that is needed amidst the diverse, mobile and rapidly changing world challenging the citizens of this town.
Carrboro Day will offer such an opportunity for people to meet and celebrate living together in Carrboro. This day will be modeled after the small town homecomings and parades once common in the United States, and the festivals in Europe, which were started for religious purposes but now have evolved into community celebrations. Local music, games, dancing, food, poetry, stories, groups, talents and humor will be allowed to offer Carrboro’s citizens a day to forget themselves, to reach out to others and to create a memory of renewal and fun that will be sustaining when difficult issues face them or the whole town.
Each year, Carrboro Day though potentially organized by different people involving varying groups, games, music, dances, food and stories, should as a whole strive to:
– Foster tradition, history and memory.
– Foster the community’s shared values.
– Foster the need to preserve and renew the citizens’ common heritage stemming from their residency in Carrboro and shared values.
– Foster a time of cooperation and connectedness, not political partisanship.
– Retell the community story, including stories of good works and humor coupled with stories of tragedy and death.
– Foster a web of personal acquaintances that transcend neighborhoods, churches, non-profit groups and other subgroups of the town.
– Involve the town’s wide variety of people – the young and old, old-timers and new arrivals, rich and poor – in planning and participating in the day.
– Identify morale building activities, and emphasize the positive ways that citizens of Carrboro can live together
– Improve the knowledge of citizens of their fellow citizens.
-Showcase the gifts and skills of Carrboro citizens.
– Create mechanisms for identifying the associational life of the community along with the skills and capacities that the people within the associations possess and that can be utilized for the benefit of the community, and
– Emphasize the preservation of what is valuable.
Through Carrboro Day, Carrboro residents can derive a sense of belonging, recognition or acceptance from being a part of the community, which will encourage them to know their town better by living here.
Carrboro Day celebration to feature music, magic and more
All citizens of Carrboro and surrounding communities are cordially invited to come to the 13th
Annual Carrboro Day celebration on Sunday, May 4th. The theme this year is “Celebrating a Sustainable Community†in recognition of Carrboro’s ongoing achievements in this area.
The celebration will be a trash-free event; please help the town achieve this goal by throwing away all recyclable materials in the proper containers provided.
This year’s activities, which will begin at 1 p.m., will include:
• Music at the Town Hall front lawn by seven local and regional performers:
1:00-1:30 Village Band
1:40-2:20 Oscar Begat
2:30-3:10 Password to Larkspur Lane
3:20-4:00 The Obies (gospel)
4:10-4:50 Storm Front
5:00-5:40 Gigi Dover & Big Love
5:50-6:30 Grimball and Long
• Deep Magic by Joshua Lozoff, 2:00-4:00 p.m.
• Special appearance by Mother Goose, 2:00-3:30 p.m.
• Readings by local poets in the Town Hall Board Room, 4:00–5:30 p.m.
• Book and baked goods sale by the Friends of the Carrboro Library 1-5 p.m.
• Boy Scouts’ Hot Dog Sale, 1-5 p.m.
• Police Department, Carrboro Transportation Board, Fire Department, Public Works, Orange
Emergency Medical Services and OWASA displays, 1-6 p.m.