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Friday is Juneteenth — a federal holiday, a three-day weekend for a lot of Ankeny, and the one weekday this newsletter takes off. Before you scatter for the long weekend, here's how the metro is marking the day, what's still running, and the Ankeny ad man who'll re-earn your business every 30 days. Let's roll. 🚲
🎉 The big one: where to mark Juneteenth around the metro
Juneteenth — Friday, June 19 — commemorates the day in 1865 when federal troops reached Galveston, Texas, and enforced the freedom of the last enslaved Americans, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation. It's been a federal holiday since 2021, which is why your bank, the post office, and most government offices will be dark Friday.
The metro's marquee celebration is the Iowa Juneteenth Neighbor's Day Celebration, a free, family-friendly festival of live entertainment, food, vendors, and a kids' area. According to We Are Iowa's metro roundup, it lands Saturday, June 20, starting at noon at Western Gateway Park in downtown Des Moines — about a 20-minute drive from Ankeny.
Getting there without a car got simpler this month: DART will run a regular schedule on Friday, the holiday itself, so the metro's newly redesigned bus network is fully in service all weekend (and fares are still free through June 30).
📍 Source: Iowa Juneteenth | We Are Iowa | DART Holiday Service
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⚡ Quick hits
🎶 Beats & Eats is back tomorrow. The city's free summer series returns Thursday, 5–7:30 p.m. at the Ankeny Market & Pavilion (715 W 1st St) — food trucks and live music in Uptown, no ticket required. It's a good warm-up to the long weekend, weather permitting. Event details
🌩️ Weather
A loud start, a bright finish. The National Weather Service had a Severe Thunderstorm Watch up for the metro until 11 a.m. this morning, so expect a rough commute before things calm down.
Today: Early storms, then partly sunny and windy. High near 83°.
Tonight: Mostly clear and breezy, low around 59°.
Thursday: Sunny and quieter, high near 76°.
📅 Around Ankeny
Today (Wednesday) — Kirkendall Public Library:
🃏 Social Canasta — 1:00–3:00 p.m. · drop-in card game for adults · Library calendar
🎬 Movie + Craft — 1:00–2:30 p.m. · Children's Program Room · a kids' movie and make-and-take · Library calendar
👔 Make a Father's Day Card — 6:00–7:30 p.m. · registration required · Library calendar
Tomorrow (Thursday):
🥂 AYP After Hours — 5:00–7:00 p.m. · Good Trip Travel Co., 104 SW Maple St. (Uptown) · Ankeny Young Professionals networking · Event details
🎶 Beats & Eats — 5:00–7:30 p.m. · Ankeny Market & Pavilion, 715 W 1st St. · food trucks + live music · Event details
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📈 Royal Palm Marketing: The Ankeny Agency That Says No to Long Contracts and Yes to Real Results
A beauty school walked into Royal Palm Marketing ready to hand its whole budget to TikTok ads. Owner Marcus Pitts could have said yes and cashed the check. He said no.
He'd done the homework, and the numbers didn't back it up — the school's soon-to-be students weren't on TikTok when they were ready to enroll. So he pointed them somewhere better: Google Search ads aimed at people already looking, plus retargeting to stay in front of those still deciding. A few months later, the school logged its best month for leads it had ever recorded.
After nearly 30 years in marketing, he runs Royal Palm with his wife Christina on month-to-month terms — no long-term contracts — and tracks one number: whether clients are making more money. Hire them and you work directly with the owners, not an account manager reading off a script.
The basics:
📈 Digital marketing & web design — month-to-month, no long-term contracts
👫 Family-run; you work directly with owners Marcus & Christina Pitts
🆓 Free audit and honest plan within 48 hours, no obligation
⚡ Today's Takeaway
Friday is Juneteenth — a federal holiday and a three-day weekend for much of Ankeny — and the metro's free Neighbor's Day celebration lands Saturday at Western Gateway Park. Storms bang through this morning before the sun takes over.
Thursday: the long-weekend lineup — Sips & Songs returns to The District, the weekend's events, and another local business in the spotlight.
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Rolling with Ankeny — Local news, local deals, no fluff. 🚲