A Sundown Salute Committee has formed an official Board of elected officials in the hopes of making the celebration a self-funded event.

Tuesday, January 3rd was the first meeting which organized the committee that is inheriting $32,000 in debt.

Nikki Londene is the Sundown Salute Committee President, Jim Germann the Vice President, Michele Stimatze is Treasurer and Sam Niemczyk is the Secretary.

Vice President Germann said that they are all new at this, but they have one thing in common – the love for the community. “It’s always nice to see that people appreciate Sundown Salute as something unique to Junction City and they’re willing to put forth a little effort to save it…I moved back here 15 years ago, and I’ve been involved with Sundown Salute since then and so, it’s kind of near and dear to my heart; but it’s always nice to see members of the community step up and say ‘hey, I think that’s worth saving, let’s do something to save it’.”

Germann worked with previous Director Sharon Glessner and said that over the years, the support for Sundown Salute faltered.

“[She] did an excellent job, it’s just that one person cannot run that, and she’s asked for help for years and nobody’s been willing to step up and assist her more; and until we got in that big financial debt, that’s when everybody realized, ‘hey we should have been listening to closer to Sharon the last two or three years, now it’s time we have to do something or it’s going to go away forever’,” said Germann.

According to Germann, one of the big problems was waiting until the last minute to try and raise money.

There are several subcommittees, including a Fundraising Committee and a Volunteers Committee.

The next meeting is January 24th. After the committee has properly formed and organized, meetings will be once a quarter.