THE MOUNT RAINIER DAY FESTIVAL

MOUNT RAINIER DAY FESTIVAL -- The Mount Rainier Day Festival is planned for Saturday, May 17.  It is an all-day fun event for families, friends and relatives.  Please mark your calendars and plan to attend.  Our City will once again come alive with activities to celebrate our spirit of community and our cultural diversity. 

The parade will line up at 10:00am.  It will follow a new route this year to give others in the community an opportunity to share in this event.  The lineup will be at the Mount Rainier Nature and Recreation Center.  The parade will leave the Nature Center at 11:00am.  Once through the gates, the parade will turn right onto Arundel Road; left on 30^th Street; Left on Upshur, down Rainier Avenue, right on 34^th, around the circle, down Perry, and finally left on 36 street, and will fall out on Rhode Island Avenue.  We will be joined again this year with the Largo Marching Band. 

Entertainment this year will start with the Military Band.  They will play a few numbers and the MC, Councilwoman Trina Brown from Bladensburg will introduce the bands for the day.  They promise to be hot and a lot of fun.

Vendors will be set up and ready for business by 9:30am.  Please come out and support them.  They come back year after year because of your participation and support.

Our popular children’s section will be up and promises to be excellent.  There will be the moon bounce, cotton candy, popcorn, and a lot more.  We have requested the horses and the race cars, but they have not been confirmed.  Keep your fingers crossed, we just pull it off.  The Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission will be in the house with its Skate Mobile, finger painting and of course Chuzzy the Clown will be in his usual spot painting faces and making animals out of the balloons.

The day is shaping up to be fun for the entire family.  So come out and support this fun filled day!  There will be a free souvenir cup for the first 1,000 participants, so stop by the Mount Rainier Day Festival Committee table for your stadium cup.  When they are gone, they are gone.

To raise fund to support this year’s activities, the Mount Rainier Day Festival Committee will also be holding two raffles.  A $1 raffle for ten (10) $25 gift cards, and a $5 50/50 raffle.  Drawings for the gift cards will be announced and held every hour or so.  The final raffle (1 ticket for $5 or 2 tickets for $8) will be for a 32 inch color television.  You must be present to win for all of the raffles.  Tickets will be drawn until there is a winner present, and the winning ticket must be presented before the prize can be collected.

In addition to the raffles, the City will be providing transportation all day long.  For your convenience and to reduce the need for parking, the City will have the Call A Bus and the Police Van circling the City.  The route for the transportation service will be shared through a flyer, and will be available on cable channels 21 (Verizon), and 71 (Comcast).  Please also check out the City’s website www.mountrainiermd.org for additional information.  Both vehicles will make stops at Kaywood Garden Apartments, Queens Manor, Rainier Manor, Queenstown and 34^th and Bunker Hill Road.  The rides are FREE, so please use them all day long.

The transportation is made possible by our sponsors, Kaywood Garden Apartments through the Kay Management Team; Rainier Manor through the Humphrey Management, Queens Manor, and Queenstown Apartments.  Each of these management teams contributed generously to this event, and we are forever grateful.  Pepsi Cola Company also stepped up to the plate when asked, and made a contribution of fifty (50) cases of mixed sodas and ten (10) cases of water.  So, stop by and join the Pepsi Generation while picking up your stadium cup.  The Mount Rainier Day Festival Committee is happy to have these sponsors for this year’s event, and we hope that they will be our sponsors and partners for years to come.

Just when you thought it could not get any better, the Committee came up with the ideas to support the Mount Rainier Food Pantry, and newly created entity led by Rev. Brian Adam of the Mount Rainier Christian Church.  If you are coming to the Festival, PLEASE bring one or two can goods to share with those most in need in our City.  There will be a collection station in front of City Hall.

Interested in driving the Call A Bus and/or the Police Van?  Got a valid Maryland driver’s license, no points, no criminal record, personal car insurance, know the City and City limits?  Give Mayor Malinda Miles a call (301-237-3889) or email her at mayormiles@gmail.com (emails PREFERRED).  Drivers will be paid up to $25 an hour for eight hours of work.

Finally, Mount Rainier’s downtown business community has been invited to put some of their wares and merchandise out on the street.  That’s right, they will be street vending to showcase what they have in their stores.  PLEASE stop by, introduce yourself, and make a purchase.  They will be glad to see you.

This year’s Mount Rainier Day Committee includes Janis Lomax, Officer Eddie Murphy, and Mayor Malinda Miles.  Volunteers are needed.  Each volunteer selected will be given a Mount Rainier Day Festival T-shirt.  Please contact Ms. Lomax, if you would like to volunteer.  Ms. Lomax can be reached at 301-985-6585, Monday through Friday from 9:00a until 5:00pm.