Volunteers putting together this year’s Fourth of July festivities have plans for an explosive culminating event. Now, if only dollars matched their dreams.
In keeping with recent tradition, members of the Stars and Stripes Committee are putting their energy into staging a public fireworks display to begin at dusk at the Enumclaw Expo Center. The event has been a hit the past few years, attracting large crowds to the center’s north parking lot and informal viewing spots throughout the area.
Fireworks are being planned again this year, but lighting up the sky carries a $6,800 price tag – and that’s a bill the Stars and Stripes folks simply aren’t able to pay.
At least, not yet.
There’s a concerted effort afoot to raise $8,000 to make the 2012 holiday a success. The bulk would cover the cost of the professional fireworks display, with the rest earmarked for things like advertising and the annual downtown parade.
Heading up the Stars and Stripes Committee is Enumclaw Mayor Liz Reynolds.
“It has to be an effort by the community to keep the whole thing alive,” Reynolds said.
The committee has shopped around, she said, and has learned $6,800 is a good deal for the type of show Enumclaw is used to. Trouble is, a deposit is due in early June and money is in low supply.
Unlike past years, Stars and Stripes is taking a regional view of the fireworks attraction, realizing people attend from Black Diamond to Buckley. With that in mind, boosters are looking to those communities for help with funding.
“We’re trying to expand our horizons,” Reynolds said. “It truly is a Plateau show.”
Anyone wishing to donate can make a check payable to Stars and Stripes and deliver it to either the Chamber of Commerce office or Park Center Hotel where General Manager Tim Robeck is heading Fourth of July marketing efforts.
Reynolds said the holiday parade will resemble those of previous years, with children on brightly-decorated bicycles, tricycles and scooters leading the way. As always, the noon parade will roll along Cole Street.
