I couldn't be more excited about this. We worked for two years to have one of the Washington, D.C., bands come. It's very difficult to do — you kind of have to book them two to three years in advance.

We didn't have any Ku Klux Klan in Washington, D.C. There was no White Citizens Council. I mean, there was just this vast separation that you didn't have any kind of contact with until you went beyond the boundaries of your community.

The outpouring of volunteers has been tremendous. I have a significant backlog of e-mails from across NAVFAC Washington and from personnel assigned to commands supported by us, ready to go and assist those in need.

All military events are always free, but there are limited seats. We encourage people to get those picked up as soon as they possibly can.

I think this is going to be an extremely enjoyable event and something totally different for our community.

D.C. is very cosmopolitan. Washington is very unusual for its size in terms of food offerings.