Latham staff reflect on Juneteenth and freedom

By Katrina Fryklund

Director of National Outreach

Juneteenth Committee Member

As Latham Centers celebrates Juneteenth for the first time, we asked staff to reflect on the meaning of Juneteenth. It is a difficult question for many, myself included. For every staff person, that meaning is different, and it depends on your history and upbringing; your friends and friendships; your feeling of community, and with whom you surround yourself.

Planning this celebration and seeing the goings-on in the world in the last two years has made me more reflective and thoughtful about what happens outside my small Cape Cod bubble. I feel that it is time that we, as a community, recognize what we can do at Latham Centers, on Cape Cod, and as active members of a micro-and macro-community where the world needs to see and feel cultural changes.

Patrice Carroll, my colleague and fellow Juneteenth Committee Member, said, “This celebration is not just about creating new traditions at Latham. It’s about determining how we can celebrate in June, but also how we can create impactful change moving forward at Latham Centers.”

Together as a community, let’s listen to each other and learn from one another’s experiences. Let’s acknowledge our shortcomings and ways that we can grow. Finally, we extend an invitation to others to join us! Latham is an innovative and life-changing place to work, with people of all backgrounds bringing a diversity of perspectives to our community.

Below are two staff pieces – anonymous reflections on Juneteenth: