Cedar Rapids Freedom Festival’s 2024 military tribute banners on sale; call out for button design contest

You’d think Tim Arnold of Cedar Rapids would be used to the spotlight, performing around the area as a singer/guitarist and actor.

But the Air Force veteran was completely surprised to learn his face would be on a Cedar Rapids Freedom Festival Military Tribute Banner this past summer. His father, Rick Arnold of Central City, also was honored with a banner for his 21-year career with the Air Force, from 1972 to 1993.

Father and son found out on Memorial Day, then shortly thereafter saw their banners hanging on adjacent light poles along First Avenue, up the hill from the Alliant Energy PowerHouse.

Seeing them “was neat,” Tim Arnold said. “And, if I'm completely honest, a little bit embarrassing. Not because there's anything bad about it. But I guess it's not something that I often go around talking about. So to have my picture and that honor up around for the whole city, it felt very nice, but I was a little self-conscious about it.”

He did enjoy hearing comments from others who spied his banner.

“I would get Facebook messages from people,” he said. “Sometimes they took a picture of it and sent it to me or (sent) text messages. It was kind of neat, and it felt very, very good.”

The Freedom Festival banners are returning for the fourth year, to honor active-duty members and those who are retired or honorably discharged from the U.S. armed forces.

The 50 banners, at $250 each, are quickly being snapped up, so Marnie Schultz, the festival’s director of events and marketing, warns interested parties not to wait too long to purchase a banner.

They will be placed on light poles in downtown Cedar Rapids throughout the summer, with a locator map on the Freedom Festival’s website. A free option is to then hang the banners in the Veterans Memorial Building on Veterans Day. Recipients will receive their banner afterward.

Those who don’t have someone specific to honor, but would like to help recognize a veteran can participate in the Honor a Veteran Fund. Donations will help purchase banners for those who deserve to be recognized, but can’t afford the cost.

“Last year we had many people reach out that wanted to sponsor a veteran who couldn’t afford a banner,” Schultz said in announcing the program.

To buy a banner or adopt a hero, go to freedomfestival.com/military-tribute-banners. Deadline is Dec. 31.

Arnold suspects family and friends pooled the money to purchase banners for him and his father.

“I don't know who all contributed, but I think it may have been spearheaded by my mom,” he said.

Arnold, now 47, enlisted in the Air Force when he was 24 and living in his home state of Kentucky. After high school, he went to college, studied theater and tried a few different avenues, never considering the military route. But he grew up in a military family, and thought that would benefit his young family, as well.

“I knew about the Air Force, I knew my dad worked on airplanes, and I went into the recruiter and said, ‘I want to join, and I want to work on airplanes.’ And that was literally as much research as I put into it.”

He went to basic training in San Antonio, and was on active duty from 2000 to 2006. He then went into the reserves, separating from service in 2009.

He joined during peacetime, but 9/11 changed all that, and nine days later, he was deployed, spending time in five Middle Eastern countries and Guam. Along the way, he served as a flying crew chief, which he said “is basically a flying maintenance mechanic.”

His military experience “completely changed the direction of my life,” he said. “Before I joined, I was an assistant manager at an Arby's restaurant, and a sales associate at Hot Topic. And then, I joined the Air Force and learned technical skills, which I found that I enjoyed and had an aptitude for. And so the remainder of my life since then, I've been working in technical career fields. I didn't know that was something that I would ever do, prior to my military service.”

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Button design contest

The theme for the 2024 festival is “Celebrating Home,” and with the Freedom Festival headquarters’ recent move to the Veterans Memorial Building, 50 Second Avenue Bridge, that iconic location will be the focus of the 2024 festival button art.

Local artists are invited to submit entries displaying or evoking that iconic site within their design for the button, which also will be used in the overall festival artwork.

Submission requirements are posted at freedomfestival.com/updates/announcing-the-2024-button-design-contest. Deadline is Dec. 15.

The winning design will be announced in early January. The designer will receive artwork recognition; a “VIP Experience” to select Freedom Festival events; serve as a Grand Marshal in the 2024 Freedom Festival Parade; and receive a Freedom Festival prize pack of buttons and T-shirts.

The 2024 Freedom Festival will run from Flag Day, June 14, to Independence Day, July 4.

Comments: (319) 368-8508; diana.nollen@thegazette.com