Friday afternoon brings special programing to the north side of Wagner Lake. The event will be the culmination of a year’s worth of work promoting the importance of unity during a difficult time for our country’s history. The event will feature a free concert, a dedication of community art and a message of hope for the future. The East River Horizons Team is proud to present the next step in this journey to the Wagner Community and invites everyone take the time to attend this special event.

The program will include the free “Live In Concert” with singer, songwriter Koby Provost. The concert begins at 5:00 p.m. and continues to 7:30. The community art dedication program will begin at 6:00 p.m.. The concert will take a break at 6:00 p.m., when the “Unity Buffalo Art” dedication portion of the program will be held featuring special messages from Mat Yost, Wagner School Superintendent, Lucy Leines, President of the Wagner Chamber of Commerce, Robert Flying Hawk, Chairman of the Yankton Sioux Tribe and Billie Sutton, South Dakota Leadership Institute founder, all sharing a special message about the value of unity. At the conclusion of the comments the two buffalo art statues will be unveiled for the public to see. Those attending should bring a blanket or lawn chair to sit on and a plan to have supper as well during the event from the on site food sales of “Shingigs Catering”, who will be offering great food to eat throughout the event.

This project is the next step in the promotion of the idea of unity that was begun by the East River Horizons Team over one year ago. The first part of this project was called the “605 Unity Jam”, that was held at the Wagner Lake last June. The event was created to accomplish the goals for our community of increasing the culture awareness, understanding, acceptance and appreciation for all cultures in our area, to help build positive relationships locally and between communities and to also help promote Wagner Lake as a positive community asset for our area. To accomplish these goals the Horizons Team invited the community to work together in accomplishing these goals, to build partnerships within the community that required active involvement, create an activity for everyone to feel welcome to attend and participate in and to help build community through active involvement with local businesses, the Yankton

Sioux Tribe, community organizations, local agencies and volunteers from the community, all working together to partner with Horizons in supporting and operating a successful community event.

The “Unity Jam” then presented a vision to the Wagner Chamber of Commerce and the Yankton Sioux Tribe to work together to provide a symbol of that partnership by creating community art, in the form of buffalo, that would be placed in the city park for all to see and enjoy for years to come. The art work completed is a form of beauty that can help to continually remind the community that it is possible to for all of us work together and accomplish something of value for all of us. This entire journey began with a very basic and simple question that was presented that asked: “Can you imagine...”