After an initial meeting in August, the St. Cloud City Council has approved a slate of actions for its newly created Veteran Advisory Committee, including a combined veteran’s resource fair and a community market. The event is scheduled for Nov. 9 on Veterans Day weekend. “Soldier City Sunday” will center on the city’s Veterans Park on U.S. Highway 192.
“We want to make this a weekly event. Our community is starving for something like this. With the number of residents we have now, this should become popular in no time,” said Chris Robinson, Mayor of St. Cloud and Director of the Museum of Military History.
For decades, St. Cloud was known as the Soldier City, given the city’s creation by Union Civil War veterans in the early 1900s. In fact, the city’s “state street” names come from the sites where the veterans camped, organized by states, as they built their houses within what is now the state street grid.
The 16-member advisory committee is the organizing body for the planned event and consists of veterans and individuals involved in veterans’ services, as well as several community and business leaders. In addition, both the St. Cloud and Osceola Chambers of Commerce and representatives for area elected officials, including Congressman Darren Soto, State Sen. Kristen Arrington, and State Rep. Paula Stark, are committee members.
The concept of Soldier City Sundays is to invite veterans service providers, such as the federal Department of Veterans Affairs, the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Osceola County Veterans Service office, along with local veterans organizations to exhibit their services. Recent purely veteran resource events have been well attended. The community market component will consist of farmer’s market-type food and craft offerings as well as vendors that desire to market to the area’s 18,600-strong veteran population, and their families. Vendor fees will be nominal for the time being. Food truck vendors are also anticipated to participate. There are also opportunities for sponsorship. Tentative hours for the events are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Currently, the committee is also developing a logo, marketing materials, and a Soldier City Sunday event landing page on the City of St. Cloud’s website. In addition, various other events for 2026, marking the 250th anniversary of the United States, are in the very preliminary planning stages.
