Celebrate Hoover Day returns after year off

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Staff photo.

Damian Gilbert, a member of the Hoover-AHEAD organization whose mission is to celebrate diversity and promote equity and inclusion throughout Hoover, talks about the group with an attendee at 2019 Celebrate Hoover Day in Veterans Park.

Celebrate Hoover Day

WHERE: Veterans Park on Valleydale Road

WHEN: Saturday, April 24, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

COST: Free

Celebrate Hoover Day is coming back in April after being canceled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It won’t look exactly the same as previous years, due to social distancing and other precautions to help people stay safe, but city officials are eager to bring the celebration back, city Events Manager Erin Colbaugh said.

The event, scheduled for April 24 at Veterans Park from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., will include a stage with live entertainment and a large children’s entertainment area with plenty of space for people to enjoy the event while maintaining distance. There also will be hand-sanitizing stations throughout the park, she said.

The children’s area won’t have inflatables this year, but activities will include pony rides, a farm animal viewing area and carnival rides, with equipment sanitized in between each ride.

The Dixie Vintage Car Club will hold a car show with a $20 fee to enter vehicles and awards presented at 2:30 p.m.

A ceremony to honor veterans with new brick pavers in the Veterans Plaza at Veterans Park will kick off the day’s festivities at 11 a.m., but it will be in the grassy area in front of the main stage to allow more social distancing than typically is possible at the Veterans Plaza.

There won’t be a 10-foot-wide apple pie served to the public this year as usual, but organizers do plan to give away prepackaged ice cream treats for free, she said. Businesses with the Hoover Area Chamber of Commerce once again will be able to put up exhibition booths, but each business or organization will have its own 10x10-foot tent rather than all being under a single giant tent, Colbaugh said.

Food truck vendors will be on site, and Shred-It will offer document shredding services in the Spain Park High School parking lot.

“We still have a lot to celebrate in Hoover, and with spring coming, we are excited to do so,” Colbaugh said. “I still think it’s going to be a fun day at the park.”