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Pepin Park hosted the first performance of Kicks@6 Tuesday, a concert featuring a local band with artists including Kurt Miller, Kris Shaw and Ryan Johannessen that drew 40 attendees despite the continuing pandemic.
William Thackeray a retired professor at Montana State University-Northern said he's been coming to the event for a long time and thankfully the park was more than adequate to maintain social distance amid the pandemic.
"We've been coming here for, oh lord, 10 years, longer than that actually," Thackeray said.
He said he's been following Miller, the organizer of Kicks@6, whose father he worked with at Northern.
"I went to his concerts several times downtown before he came here," Thackeray said.
Donald Bear who also attended the concert said he hasn't been to it in a couple of years.
"I was driving by on my lunch break and was wondering what was going on," Bear said, "so I decided to come on over and check it out."
Like Thackeray, he said, he was glad to see that people were able to spread out and enjoy good music while still maintaining social distance.
"I like that everybody's spread out," he said, "It's pretty well-organized, I don't know if that was their purpose, but it's good to see."
Miller described this concert as a celebration of the United States and was preceded by a flag presentation by the American Legion Riders Post 11.
Miller led attendees in the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by the Star-Spangled Banner which he performed before the legion left.
American Legion Commander Les Johnson said Miller asks the Veterans Honor Guard to do the flag presentation every year, but with the recent formation of the riders he thought it was an opportunity for them.
"I thought it would be a good time to for them to get out and support what he's doing and help out," Johnson said.
He said the riders is a chapter of the American Legion that was formed last year and has been doing their best to help out veterans and do charity work since then.
Johnson said the organization is open to any veteran with a motorcycle and the legion is open to any veteran regardless of vehicular preference.
Kicks@6 will be held Tuesdays in Pepin Party through August 18.
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