Want Fireworks This Year? Donate at the Pottstown GoGourth Kick-Off Event Wednesday 5:30 to 7:30

Blogger's Note: The following was provided by the Pottstown GoFourth organization

After an overwhelmingly successful inaugural Pottstown GoFourth! Festival last year, a reorganized committee is dedicated to providing a fireworks finale for area families attending the holiday celebration on Wednesday, July 4.

The festival will begin around noon, immediately after the Pottstown Fourth of July parade.

To officially kick off fundraising efforts, Pottstown GoFourth! is hosting an event on Wednesday, April 4 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at 140 College Drive, Floor 2R, Montgomery County Community College Innovation Hub.

A $10 suggested donation will provide admission to a fun gathering with food, beverages, raffles, and live music by area favorite Rebecca Shoemaker, accompanied on piano by her son, Sam Pattine.

The Pottstown GoFourth! organization now is an official Pennsylvania 501c3 non-profit corporation, operating under the TriCounty Community Network, which manages all GoFourth! finances and reporting.

Co-Chairpersons Amy Francis and Amy Wolf emphasize that not a penny of taxpayer money supports the July 4 festivities, which is why fundraising is so essential.

The Whiskeyhickon Boys performed last year

“No Pottstown Borough funds help to pay for this celebration,” Wolf says. “It is completely funded by sponsorships and donations made by businesses and individuals who want to offer our greater Pottstown community a fun, family-oriented event -- a happening that showcases all the positive community spirit and amenities that Pottstown has to offer.”

Last year’s GoFourth! featured a laser and music show. “People were open-minded about seeing the laser show as an alternative to fireworks,” Francis says, “but we also heard a clear preference for traditional fireworks. As a result, the committee has dedicated itself to raising the funds to make fireworks happen as part of this free, true community event. However, folks should know that fireworks cost about $1,000 per minute in addition to ancillary costs such as fire department fees.”

“We cannot begin to fund this festival through bucket collections alone,” Wolf says, adding that the
volunteers are seeking two headlining fireworks sponsors of $10,000 each (or one official and extraordinarily generous sponsor at $20,000).

The co-chairs note that last year’s attendees loved the variety of professional live music that was performed all day, in addition to the food trucks, arts and crafts vendors, and the Sly Fox beer tent -- all of which will return this year – as well as hot air balloon rides by the U.S. Hot Air Balloon Team. 

The festival also will include activities geared toward children, ranging from face painting to the appearance of “Grandpop Bubbles,” a performance artist who creates enormous bubbles much to delight of young and old alike. Grandpop Bubbles’ performance and all of the children’s activities for the day are being generously sponsored by ROG Orthodontics.

Also new this year will be a “Royal Court” competition: Area school districts will be asked to encourage their Homecoming Kings and Queens to compete through fundraising to be named King and Queen of the Pottstown GoFourth! Royal Court – and runners up will be named Prince and Princess of the Court. All Royal Court selections will appear in the Rotary Club-sponsored July 4th parade and will be officially honored at the GoFourth! festival.

Other activities that will complement the GoFourth! events at the park will include, confirmed to date, opportunities to play miniature golf at Manatawny Green and board the Colebrookdale Railroad which will conduct short runs to and from the park to the Boyertown station.

The Rotary Club parade will take place again, as noted. Interested parties should contact pottstownrotary@gmail.com as soon as possible to register. (There is a modest registration fee that will cover traffic control and other related expenses.) 

The giant duck means the annual duck race is on.

The parade will begin at 10:30 a.m. at High and Adams Streets and continue west to Manatawny Street – and participants as well as spectators will be encouraged to continue on to the King Street entrance of Memorial Park to participate in the GoFourth! Festival!

The Rotary Club also will hold its 26th Annual Duck Race on Manatawny Creek the afternoon of July 4. By selling duck sponsorships, the Rotary will benefit charities in the greater Pottstown area – including PottstownGoFourth! 

 To sponsor a Rotary duck, go to pottstownrotary.org (or purchase a duck at the GoFourth festival on July 4); to make a parade contribution, please send a tax-deductible donation to the Pottstown Rotary Community Endowment Fund (PRCEF) via P.O. Box 227, Pottstown, PA. 19464.

“When you look at photos from last year’s GoFourth! Festival, it’s striking to see the beautiful cross-section of Pottstown people – diverse smiling faces, young to old,” says Wolf. “The volunteers want to build on 2017’s wonderful event and provide an even better experience for our hometown.”

While last year’s festival was a two-day event, this year’s GoFourth! will be limited to July 4 only, which will help save costs on items ranging from parking lot rental fees to portable restroom facilities. Carnival rides will not be offered this year, notes Francis, citing not only the prohibitive costs but difficulty in finding vendors who will set up rides for a one-day-only event.

Help Bring Back the Fireworks and Support PottstownGoFourth!

Area businesses and citizens can play a vital role in ensuring the success of this year’s all- volunteer led effort to throw a successful July 4 event for the community and guests. In addition to supporting the April 4th benefit event:

• Tax-deductible donations can be made by donating online at PottstownGoFourth.org, or by sending a check made payable to the TriCounty Community Network (TCN) and noting “Attention: GoFourth” in the memo line on the check. Checks may be sent to Pottstown GoFourth! Festival, PO Box 1362, Pottstown, PA 19464. 
  
• Businesses or individuals may sponsor various entertainment providers and activities – and in exchange they will receive outstanding publicity and other benefits including (for upper level sponsors) preferred seating during the fireworks display. To learn more about becoming a sponsor, go to PottstownGoFourth.org or email PottstownGoFourth@gmail.com. To date, in addition to those sponsorships already noted, the Pottstown Mercury is a generous GoFourth! supporter. 
• Roughly 20 food vendors are expected at the festival, additional culinary offerings are welcome. Vendor applications can be found at: www.pottstowngofourth.info/vendor-apps
• Similarly, quality arts and crafts vendors will be featuring their wares, but additional artisans are encouraged to participate. Again, the PottstownGoFourth.org website provides relevant information. Vendor applications can be found at: www.pottstowngofourth.info/vendor-apps
• Friends of PottstownGoFourth! Festival can purchase GoFourth! merchandise, including the popular hats, which always sell out quickly. GoFourth! Merchandise can be purchased at www.pottstowngofourth.info/2018-gofourth-gear when available and while supplies last. 

Please look for updates about Pottstown GoFourth! at www.pottstowngofourth.org or www.pottstowngofourth.com and at www.facebook.com/PottstownGoFourth and www.twitter.com/GoFourthFest .

(While there is not a rain date for the entire festival, the rain date for fireworks only will be July 13.) 

July 4th Events Canceled and Other Business

What much of the Pottstown area feared came to pass Wednesday night; official word that there will be no parade, no fireworks and no Independence Day festivities in Pottstown this year.

Marcia Levengood, co-chair of Independence Day Ltd., the non-profit organization which has struggled to field events for the last three years, said almost no contributions were received as a result of fundraising efforts.

Borough Council President Dan Weand reiterated that the borough never has, and has no intention to start now, of funding the event with taxpayer dollars.

And council member Dennis Arms wondered why council is complacent enough to allow Borough Manager Mark Flanders to spend $2,500 to hire a consultant to find a replacement for the departing Assistant Borough Manager Eric Batdorf, when the borough "has an HR department charged with hiring and recruiting," but won't spend money on a July 4th parade.

And so it went. You can read and watch more about that in the Tweets below.

On to the "other business."

First of all, Vice President Sheryl Miller sketched out a way that the Pottstown Human Relations Commission could be put back up and running. Significant among the changes sought are appointment of commissioners by borough council and not the mayor, as happens now.

The PART bus system, whose $2.3 million budget will likely be approved at Monday's meeting, will have a fare increase starting July 1 after a public hearing at which no one spoke.

The LERTA tax break, or as the Digital Notebook staff calls it -- "The Never-Ending Story" -- may finally be adopted at the joint council school board meeting on June 21

And what we all hope will be the final version of plans for the land on the former Mrs. Smith's Pies site at south Hanover and Industrial Drive -- now called Hanover Square -- will be voted on Monday.

That should be enough to keep me on my toes for a couple days.

Here are the Tweets 'N More:

It's Time to Pony Up for Fireworks

Holiday time is a time when we, above all, celebrate tradition.

There's Christmas Tree traditions, the Pottstown by Candlelight Holiday House Tour, Menorah lightings, Santa arriving downtown and at the Coventry Mall.

But there is one Pottstown tradition which is one the ropes this year, and its not one we usually think about in November.

It's the fireworks that cap our days-long Fourth of July celebrations here in town.

Yes there's a parade, which is wonderful, car rally, events galore in Memorial Park, amusement rides, balloons and fly-overs. but the one everyone looks forward to is the fireworks on the final night.

What you might not know is that the fireworks are also the most expensive, and that the bulk of that expense has to be paid months in advance.

In previous years, the money raised prior to and during the events has provided enough money for the all-volunteer Fourth of July Committee to pay that fireworks deposit out of pocket.

This year, thanks to a combination of factors -- at the base of which is likely a slowly recovering economy -- that is not the case.

"We barely squeaked through to the end of the celebration this summer," committee member Terri Swavely. "There was very little left over."

The Fourth of July Celebration is more than just fireworks.

Part of the problem, Swavely said, is several large pledge commitments to the event were not honored.

No checks were ever received for as many as five major pledges, the receipt of which would net the committee as much as $5,000.

That money would definitely help the committee meet the $20,000 goal they need to reach by Jan. 1 in order to make the deposit for the fireworks.

But it won't be enough by itself, which is why the committee is asking people who appreciate that fireworks show to consider making their annual Fourth of July donation six months earlier this year.

All donations may be sent to:

Independence Day LTD.

c/o Maryann Peters

230 Beech Street

Pottstown, PA 19464


Or, donations can be dropped off in person at the Pottstown Parks and Recreation office on the second floor of Borough Hall, 100 E. High St.

This would be a great time for those who live outside the borough and who come in to town to enjoy the free fireworks and then head right back out, to give a little back and help a group of volunteers ensure they'll have something to watch come this July.