Black-owned business hands out free treats during Juneteenth parade

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – The Omaha NAACP’s annual Juneteenth parade made its way down North 24th Street on Saturday, in the heart of Omaha’s black community.

Festivities returned after a two-year covid shutdown. But the 2022 anniversary is the first one as a state and federal holiday.

“I’m looking at the generations as well as the diversity in the crowd. So this is absolutely wonderful to see a turnout such as this,” said spectator Monica Beasley.

The parade kicked off at 10 a.m. with floats, dancers and spectators galore.

The heat was on early Saturday morning. That’s why Carmen Tapio gave people a place to cool off. She’s the owner of North End Teleservices: the largest black owned business in the state.

In honor of Juneteenth, she and her team wanted to do something special.

“Overnight, my team worked really hard, we’ve been working on it for about a week, to stand up this free creamery that’s available to the public to come in, get some ice cream, water juice,” said Tapio.

That’s right: it’s all free.

They spent only a week planning and putting this shop together. After Sunday, it’ll be gone. The shop will become an office for North End Teleservices.

In the meantime, North End is in the process of building a 120,000 square foot development of mixed use space. Tapio says this will be used for housing, daycare, and a restaurant service.

“What we do for our business, contact center services, and the exceptional way that they do it, is the way that we do everything. So when I came up with the idea, everybody was all in and they go it done,” said Tapio.

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