Bicycles, Brotherhood, and the Big Picture: A Community Comes Together While City Leadership Stays Home
May 30, 2025
On May 25, 2025, the heart of Freeport beat stronger at Taylor Park.
In a beautiful display of generosity, unity, and purpose, the Victory Masons Lodge of Freeport and the Celestial Grand Lodge of Chicago hosted a community picnic and children's bicycle giveaway, providing over 80 brand-new bikes to youth across the city. The event brought together families, neighbors, and volunteers from every corner of Freeport, creating the kind of joyous, uplifting environment our city so desperately needs.
Music from Flight Radio filled the park, adding a celebratory rhythm to the day. Laughter echoed across the green fields as children raced their new bikes, families shared food, and community members came together to uplift one another.
This remarkable event is one of two annual community-centered efforts by these Masonic organizations—the other being their well-known Holiday Toy Drive. Both are independently organized, volunteer-driven initiatives rooted in service, goodwill, and genuine commitment to the community.
But despite all the good happening that day, the absence of Freeport’s leadership was glaring.
With the exception of the Freeport Fire Department, no elected or senior city officials bothered to attend. Not Mayor Jodi Miller. Not a single member of the Freeport City Council. Not City Manager Rob Boyer. No representatives from the newly formed Faith Leaders for Peace or High Hope Freeport—the very organizations created and promoted by Mayor Miller as symbols of the city’s efforts to reduce crime and restore hope.
Once again, their silence spoke louder than any press release or social media post ever could.
How is it that grassroots organizations from Freeport and Chicago can come together and do more in a single afternoon than the city-backed initiatives tasked with solving long-term violence and disengagement? What message does it send to the children and families who showed up when their city leaders can’t even be bothered to do the same?
Events like this picnic are about more than just bicycles—they are about building trust, restoring hope, and showing up. And on May 25th, it wasn’t the people who draw salaries from our tax dollars who showed up—it was the people who simply care.
Fighting4Freeport would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to the Victory Masons Lodge, the Celestial Grand Lodge, Flight Radio, the Freeport Fire Department, and the countless volunteers and residents who made the day special. You are what Freeport needs more of—present, committed, and unapologetically for the people.
While some may be more concerned with headlines and handshakes, you proved once again that real leadership doesn’t come from a title—it comes from action. And on May 25, 2025, you led.
— Fighting4Freeport
