On Sunday, Auburn will celebrate.

There is no holiday, no event on the calendar calling for observance.

Instead Auburn, as well as the towns of Algona and Pacific, will celebrate the diversity of the community – the things that make this little part of the globe unique.

That’s why they call it Uniquely Auburn.

Since 1995, the city has gathered to celebrate diversity through song, dance, poetry and food and to honor the people who make the city unique. This year’s event is no different.

Beginning at 2 p.m. at the Auburn Performing Arts Center at 700 E. Main St., this year’s event seeks to be all inclusive and live up to this year’s theme, “We Are More Than We Imagine.”

“It’s very important to us to make sure that all of our community is included in our event,” said Alexandra Davis, cultural diversity liaison for the City of Auburn, which is supporting the event. “It’s important that we get to hear the stories of our new residents, our cultural groups, our new immigrants and to ensure that everybody gets to participate. We have a great event committee, and we’re just excited to bring new voices to the table.”

“Our program this year is different, with a lot more performances and lot more cultural diversity and lot of performers of different ethnicities,” added Janice Nelson, co-chair of Uniquely Auburn with Lee Valenta.

The free event will feature performances by several local performing groups, including the Striped Water Poets.

For Pacific Poet Laureate Gerald McBreen – a member of the Striped Water Poets along with son, Brendan McBreen – the event has been a part of their schedule since 1999.

According to Gerald, he first began writing poetry when his sons, Brendan and Barry, were at Auburn Riverside High School in the late 1990s.

“Brendan took it up in high school, and he had events that he would go to after high school and I’d take him there,” Gerald said. “And that’s how I started.”

“I’d been trying to write for years, but I’d never really tried to do poetry,” he continued. “I tried to get him (Brendan) to put his stuff in contests and he wouldn’t do it.”

So Gerald said he decided to try his hand. He took a song he had written about his hometown of Omaha, Neb., rewrote it as poetry and sent it in to the contest.

“I didn’t win anything but I did get an honorable mention,” Gerald said. “After I sent that into the contest, I thought I’d try to keep writing. And I found I had a knack for being able to say the things I couldn’t in an essay, poetically.”

In 1999, Gerald was nominated to be honored at Uniquely Auburn.

“How that came about, for me anyhow, was some people on my mail route got together and nominated me for Uniquely Auburn,” said Gerald, who retired from the U.S. Postal Service in 2005. “I was one of their featured people and I thought, ‘Well, I’ll try to help them out.’ “

Soon Gerald, as well as Brendan, were helping the event out.

“We were drafted by Rosie Johans,” Brendan said.

“I suggested that if we took family friendly poems, short poems and put them on posters with art, people who don’t ordinarily read poems will read them because it’s there and accessible,” Gerald said. “And it turned out to be pretty popular, so they asked us to start reading from the stage.”

In addition to the Striped Water Poets, this year’s event – sponsored by the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, Soroptimist International of Auburn, Segale Properties, the City of Auburn Arts Commission, the Auburn School District and Trillium – also will feature performances by the Matsuri Taiko Drummers, a Marshallese Stick Dancing group, the Buena Vista Elementary Sixth Grade Multicultural Choir, the Orgullo Puhrepecha Canciones, Evergreen Heights Elementary Sport Stacking group, Auburn Follies and Leatha Turchiano.

The event also will feature a complimentary sit-down dinner with chili, cornbread, baked potatoes, salad and cake.

Uniquely Auburn will also showcase several interactive events for participants, including sport stacking, magnetic poetry, beading and teen games, as well as; an art and poetry quilt, flower and photography exhibits and a bell choir.

The event will also feature a presentation of a check to the City of Auburn to help fund the city’s “barrier-free” Playground at Les Gove Park. Cash donations for the park fund also can be made at the event. The celebration will be co-emceed by Jim Kleinbeck and Alexandra Davis.

The key to the event for Gerald however, is the recognition for the unsung heroes in the community.

“What we do is throughout the year we look for people who are helpers, who do things that don’t get out to the public,” Gerald said. “They are just decent, nice people who work hard. And we just want to honor them.”

For more information visit www.uniquelyauburn.org.