The event featured 100 Davis businesses and non-profits and drew over 8,000 attendees
By RORY CONLON — city@theaggie.org
The Davis Chamber of Commerce and Nugget Markets hosted their annual Celebrate Davis event in Community Park on May 16.
Bobbi Vaughn, the director of events and communication for the Davis Chamber of Commerce, estimated that 100 businesses and non-profit organizations participated in the festival and over 8,000 people attended. Vaughn said the purpose of Celebrate Davis is to host a family-friendly event that brings the community together.
“It’s a great snapshot of all the amazing, one-of-a-kind businesses we have in town,” Vaughn said. “It’s about celebrating the uniqueness of our community, and our business vendors reflect that.”
Their title sponsor for the event was Nugget Markets, a grocery chain with locations on East Covell Boulevard and Mace Boulevard. Nugget Markets gave out free tote bags, recipe cards and chocolate chip cookies at the event.
Rose Ross, an administrative assistant at the East Covell location, said Celebrate Davis is about giving back.
“We have such a strong community of loyal guests,” Ross said. “Outreach for us isn’t about ‘Come to our grocery store,’ it’s like, ‘Thank you so much for letting us be part of your community for so long.’ On June 16, it’s going to be 25 years since our Nugget was built, and it’s [become] a part of the community.”
Vaughn said the Chamber of Commerce added several new elements to make this year’s event unique.
“Last year, we did not have a car show, the Astro Botanicals or the artist’s alley,” Vaughn said. “We also didn’t have a drone show. Previously, at this event, we had fireworks to end the evening, and this year, we were fortunate enough to find enough sponsors to cover the cost of the drone show.”
Lori Willingham and her daughter run American Flat Soap Company, a small business featured in the lineup of local artisans and craftspeople at the festival. Willingham said that community events like Celebrate Davis help her reconnect with her customers.
“We love community events in our area, because we’re from a small town up in the foothills,” Willingham said. “You get to see people that you haven’t seen in a while and just get a sense of community.”
The Solano County Muscle Car Club showcased vintage Chevrolet Chevelles, Camaros and Novas at the festival. The club, which includes retired police and correctional officers, donated the proceeds from their vintage car show to the Natalie Corona Foundation — created to remember and celebrate the life of Natalie Corona, a Davis police officer who was killed in the line of duty in 2019.
Dlorean Cotten, who owns a 1966 Chevelle featured in the car show, said that the event brings the community together and also gives him a chance to connect with other club members.
“The value for me is just getting out of the house and hanging out with the fellas,” Cotten said. “I’m not necessarily in search of value or even attention, but it happens naturally, because people gravitate toward these cars.”
Russ Blackwell is the founder of the Russ Cheer Foundation, which focuses on single mothers, children’s suicide prevention and animal rescue. Blackwell said he came to the event to raise awareness on mental health and sell clothing out of his Kindness Mobile Thrift Shoppe.
“It’s a transformed mobility bus that we turned into a thrift boutique,” Blackwell said. “We go through a ton of donations of clothing and accessories to sell on the bus to support our foundation.”
Blackwell said the value of community events like Celebrate Davis is immeasurable.
“If you are someone that wants to promote kindness and goodwill, you can’t buy this,” Blackwell said. “This is something that’s going to come from within. Having the community come together in such a fashion to celebrate itself is absolutely amazing, and hopefully it can be an inspiration to other communities to do the same thing.”
Written By: Rory Conlon — city@theaggie.org
