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O U R 1 6 0T H Y E A R
NO 21
Livestock Auction Saturday
Smart Kids
The Future Farmers Fair concludes with a traditional auction to convert husbandry to cash. 3
Bigger than Pickleball?
Over $500,000 awarded to HHS seniors in scholarships ceremony 5
Badminton makes a comeback at HHS 6
MAY 22, 2025
From parade to livestock, it’s HFFCF weekend ● Twilight Parade kicks of Healdsburg’s ‘crown jewel’ ag event Staff Report
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Photo by Rick Tang
sign on the front of the former Foss Creek School, boldly proclaiming the new name. Food trucks were present, a stage and concert PA set up, chairs in place, and media including local newspapers and Bay Area television arrayed for the occasion, as well as De Luna’s own film production
Perhaps the city’s crown jewel event is the Healdsburg Future Farmers Country Fair and the accompanying Twilight Parade. It’s all happening this week for the 76th time, having started in 1949 in the wake of the discontinued Healdsburg Harvest Festival. This time around the theme even has a rhyme—“Keeping Ag Alive in 2025.” The whole thing kicked off back on April 19 with the annual Barn Dance and Dinner at Alexander Valley Hall, a fundraising event that raises expectations as well as money for the current year’s fair and related projects. But for months before that, the ag youth of Healdsburg and environs had focused on readying their livestock and preparing for the social event of the year. FFA and 4-H kids in kerchiefs began showing up at Rec Park
EMOTIONS The moment when the curtain comes down and the new community center name is revealed. From left, Mayor Evelyn Mitchell, and the assembled clan: Alejandro, Krystina, Abel De Luna, Abel Apolinar, Arelia (Sra. De Luna) and daughter Yesenia.
‘A dream I didn’t think I would have’ ● Latino former mayor honored by naming of Abel De Luna Community Center By Christian Kallen The past and the present gathered last Sunday afternoon on the north side of the city, and it all added up to the future. The occasion included the recognition of a former mayor and local Latino
businessman with the christening of the Abel De Luna Community Center in his honor. It also included a recognition of the generations of Latinos who have come to Healdsburg, both before and since his 1970s local celebrity, and how impactful that popula-
tion has been to Healdsburg. The Healdsburg Community Center earned its new name earlier this year, but it took these past few months to pull together the official naming ceremony for the Abel De Luna Community Center, held on the afternoon of May 18. The program included introductions, congratulations, testimonials and the unveiling of the