Field Notes
Cotton Candy and Community: SVTC at Happy Birthday America 2024
Every Fourth of July, Gypsy Hill Park in Staunton fills up with lawn chairs, flags, and families. Happy Birthday America has been doing this since 1970, started by the Statler Brothers. Three days. Free admission. Fireworks. The whole town shows up.
And every year, we're there with a cotton candy booth.
Not because cotton candy has anything to do with addiction recovery. It doesn't. But because community has everything to do with it.
When people in the Shenandoah Valley hear "Teen Challenge," we want them to think of neighbors, not strangers. We want them to picture the guys behind the booth handing their kids cotton candy, not some facility they drive past on Route 11.
That's the point.
We spin cotton candy. We hand it out. We talk to people. Some of them know exactly who we are. Some of them have family members who went through the program. Some of them just want blue cotton candy for their kid and don't care who's serving it.
All of it matters.
Ministry isn't just what happens inside a building. It's what happens when you show up in your community and say, "We're here. We're part of this. And we're not going anywhere."
Staunton has been good to us. Happy Birthday America is one of the ways we get to be good back.
See you at the park next July.
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Justin Franich
Justin Franich is a former meth addict, Teen Challenge graduate, and pastor who has been clean since 2005. Today he's a husband, father, and Executive Director of Shenandoah Valley Adult Teen Challenge. He hosts the Rebuilding Life After Addiction podcast and helps families across the U.S. navigate faith-based recovery options, compare programs, and rebuild life after addiction.
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