Unity of Gulfport will have a summer Solstice celebration on June 20.
Cathy Salustri
A Gulfport church is organizing a unique event to celebrate the longest day of the year.
The City of Gulfport granted Unity of Gulfport a special event permit to use the outside area adjacent to the Casino for its Summer Solstice Celebration, scheduled for Monday, June 20 at 7:30 p.m.
Rev. Kimberley Harrell, a representative of Unity of Gulfport, addressed the council at its June 7 regular meeting about the event that would include a sacred ceremony, inspirational talk, music, and a couple of fire-related activities.
“We have a young woman who is of Apache descent and she wants to do an Apache fire dance,” she said. “The fire chief has approved that.”
But she added that fire department officials had not approved her other request, which was for a small fire pit which would be a depository for special bags of herbs that included written slips of paper with affirmations about their intentions for the summer. She asked Gulfport City Council to reconsider that request.
Before becoming a minister in her retirement years, Harrell said she spent her entire professional life in fire safety, receiving Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms training as an arson investigator and serving on a special statewide task force in Tennessee to combat arson fires related to meth production in rural areas.
“I am committed to fire safety and would go along with whatever the fire chief recommends, even if it means hiring an off-duty firefighter to stand at the pit and be the fire steward for the night,” she said.
When asked by council members about the possibilities regarding this request, City Manager Jim O’Reilly said he would confer with fire department officials to see what could be worked out.
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