Rain dampens community 4th celebration but doesn’t stop it
By Sharon Kilpatrick
Rain threatened or poured throughout the day on Friday, July 4, but the celebration went on regardless. A thunderboomer in late afternoon sent some vendors packing up, but most of the food vendors stayed, and the high school band boosters stayed, and the juggler stayed.
The fireworks were delayed because organizers said they couldn’t preload them during the
rain, but eventually they went off and were spectacular. Then organizers asked the crowd to be patient for 10 or 15 more minutes while they loaded the grand finale, and most stayed for that also.
The crowd seemed significantly smaller than last year, but there was more food and more choice of food. The sponsors tents offered grand hospitality, and several churches were doing good business in typical holiday foods. The band boosters offered $5 haircuts, $10 massages, fancy fingernails and a dunking booth. They also went about the grounds soliciting business.
The Rappahannock County Democratic Committee had a tent and offered free balloons and bumper stickers for Presidential candidate Barack Obama, U.S. Senate nominee Mark Warner and U.S. House of Representatives nominee Anita Hartke. For the Republicans Demaris Miller was offering bumper stickers for Rep. Eric Cantor and Presidential candidate John McCain from her car in the tailgate section. There were also booths for most of the fire departments, the Rappahannock Historical Society, Wagging Tails Therapy Dogs, RappCats and the Scrabble School foundation.
Juggler David Vanderveer entertained under the picnic tent then later in front of the bandstand. He managed balls, pins, flaming torches and a unicycle. He was a comedian as well and quite a hit.
Musicians including Bobby G and Friends entertained, and Joy Heddleston began the fireworks show by singing the Star Spangled Banner.
The overall sponsor for the event was the Sperryville Volunteer Fire Department, but that organization had quite a lot of help and sponsors say the show will be back at Thornton Hill Farm again next year.
-- Sharon KilpatrickComments
Comment from wendy
Time: July 6, 2008, 9:13 am
I really wanted to be at the fireworks on the 4th. But with the rain storms that went through it was hard to tell if they were going to have them that night. We had a whole carload of people planning on attending. But there was no way to find out if they were going to happen or not. Calls to the Sperryville Fire Department got the standard message - no mention of the fireworks. Perhaps next year they can implement a message service so people can find out if the fireworks are going to happen or not.
A little better organization would probably have resulted in better attendance.
I was really disappointed to find out they happened, and that they were delayed so we could have gone if only there was a way to find out what was happening.
Comment from sperryvillefireco2
Time: July 7, 2008, 9:25 am
Wendy
We are sorry for the lack of communication. We had no cell service at the event location and I didn’t have the staff to send to change the message at the firehouse. The decision to go or cancel the show was made in a very short time frame once the storm let up we had move fast to try and uncover and preload near a 1000 shells in the canisters. Once we had about 70 percent preloaded we made the decision to start the show and to try and finish the loading during the show before the next shower. Each year we are learning from our mistakes but weather we can’t control, my plan is too have a Fire Dept. webpage up and running so that we can update it from the event site next year as hopefully Virginia Broadband should be up and running and we will have high speed access available to use there.
Thanks
Richie Burke
Chief Sperryville Vol. Fire Dept.
July 4th Committee Co-Chair
Comment from amysmith
Time: July 7, 2008, 8:01 pm
Thank you to everyone who participated to make the fireworks event happen. This was my first time to see fireworks in the countryside. It is more intimate and more relaxing, and the echo effect was very unique.
The music was outstanding, the parking was very organized, and even though it rained, many people danced in the rain anyway. We brought a couple of friends from out of town to the event. They were very impressed with the number and quality of fireworks displayed.
Thank you again and we’ll definitely be back next year!
Amy
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