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Red White and Blue rally held

Tea Party plays host to family friendly event

By Rachel Foor 2 min read

Over one hundred people turned out Saturday for the Red White and Blue Rally hosted by the Blair County Tea Party in Hollidaysburg's Legion Park.

Speakers at the rally included U.S. Rep. John Joyce, R-13th District, Blair County District Attorney Pete Weeks and Duncansville's Chief of Police Jeffery Ketner.

Topics discussed at the rally ranged from drug and violence issues in Blair County to the military withdrawal in Afghanistan to the Mexican border crisis.

"The sovereignty of America means protecting the border," Joyce said. "The sovereignty of America means building a wall to protect our citizens."

"In 2020, as you're aware, we had an unprecedented amount of homicides and attempted homicides and other violent crimes," Weeks said. "And unfortunately many of those homicides occurred by juveniles, by people who had been in the juvenile justice system in Blair County and went on as juveniles to commit far more egregious offenses. We need to be opening our eyes to the fact that here in Blair County our juvenile justice system is greatly in need of reform to restore accountability and the notion of consequence to offenders no matter what their ages."

While listening to the speakers, rally-goers enjoyed food from vendors like Claysburg Pizza, Ice House Cafe, Fred's Flatbreads and Doug's Dawgs.

Information booths by organizations like Guardians of the Children Keystone Chapter, Push Back PA and Survival Mindset were also set up under pavilions for attendees to browse.

The family friendly event included activities for children to partake in such as poster painting, RC car racing and face painting. There was also a petting zoo provided by the Bellwood Community Club and balloon creations by Mary Anne Ross of Simplicity's Wonderful World.

Throughout the event, a total of 10 guns were raffled off to ticket holders.

Mirror Staff Writer Rachel Foor is at 814-946-7458.

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