Waterville’s festival to return July 4

Community passes goal of $20,000

6/25/2013

Waterville’s Red, White, & Boom Fireworks and Festival will return for a second consecutive year,.

Festival organizers passed their $20,000 goal on June 1 and with a total $20,553.10, will be able to cover both the fireworks display and festival and have some leftover funds for next year.

“We are just so thrilled at the support the community has given us. Our Independence Day tradition will be a great opportunity to come together and celebrate our freedoms and everything our community has to offer,” said Debby Sniderhan, chairman of the festival committee.

Ms. Sniderhan said with its family focus and myriad activities for children, the festival will mirror last year’s. Notable differences will include: expanded food vendors, a dunk tank, and the sale of a winning T-shirt designed by Katherine Freytag, a third-grade student at Waterville Primary School.

The T-shirt, which was professionally designed last year, will sell for $12 each or two for $20. Proceeds will benefit the fund-raising committee to help support the tradition next year.

“Everything we do, we want to keep within the community. It was really nice to be able to involve the area children and have a design by a Waterville student,” Ms. Sniderhan said.

Although the fireworks fund-raising and festival committees began with a budget of nearly $5,000 in leftover funds, the committees struggled to break the $20,000 mark needed to cover expenses for both the fireworks and festival. It was not until the June 1 Waterville Chamber of Commerce Pub Crawl that the committees achieved their goal.

Ms. Sniderhan said the festival would not be possible without the support of the Waterville Community Church. By providing nearly all the festival’s children’s activities and volunteers to run the activities, the festival committee has been able to focus on organizing the food vendors, band, and T-shirt design contest.

Councilman Barb Bruno, who has been involved in bringing back the boom since she was elected in 2011, was chair of this year's fireworks fund-raising committee and said she hopes next year’s fund-raising projects will include a community calendar, bike-a-thon, and dinners.

“To do this two years in a row shows how important the Fourth of July is to our community, and I love that people stepped up,” she said.

At 10 p.m., the festival will close with a bang as the rocket's red, white, and blue glares light the Waterville sky.

The July 4 festival will open at 5:30 p.m. at the Waterville Primary School and children’s activities will be open from 6 to 9 p.m.

Contact Danielle Trubow at: dtrubow@theblade.com or 419-724-6129.