News you can use
News you can use
Fourth of July Festival successful with new organizer
Local residents celebrated Independence Day over the weekend, despite returning COVID-19 cases, a near loss of the Fourth of July Festival and Community Picnic at Pepin Park until Cassie Denny stepped up to be the new organizer, and some rain Sunday and Monday. The festival went on at Pepin Park Monday; the Jaycees once again fired off their annual fireworks display Monday night from the Great Northern Fairgrounds despite rainfall, and local barbecues, reunions and festivities went on throughout the area. Rainshowers and thunderstorms are expeced to continue this week, with a chance of severe thunderstorms.
Miranda Knutson, 7, from left, Meghan Knutson, 4, Jake Knutson, 6, and Gaug Pinson, 5, show off their balloon animals and painting Monday at the Fourth of July Festival in Pepin Park.
Knox Scheele, 6, brandishes a balloon sword Monday at the Fourth of July Festival and Community Picnic at Pepin Park.
Though rain fell in the area and new cases of COVID-19 continue to be confirmed, Fourth of July celebrations went off throughout the area including the annual Havre Jaycees Fourth of July Fireworks display and the two-decade tradition of the Fourth of July Festival and Community Picnic in Havre's Pepin Park.
Despite only finding an organizer six weeks ago, the festival and picnic appears to have gone off without a hitch, with Havre resident and business owner Cassie Denny newly at the helm of the annual event.
Earlier this year, the Fourth of July Festival and Community Picnic Planning Committee lost two key members in Allen "Woody" Woodwick and committee chair Sherri Simonson, which left the event without an organizer.
Despite their efforts to find a replacement, the event went without an organizer and for a while it looked like it would be canceled for a third time in a row after the pandemic required it to be canceled in 2020 and 2021.
That was until late May, when Simonson announced that they'd finally found someone willing to take over in Denny.
Denny said this year's festival and picnic went very smoothly, in part because she received a lot of guidance from people with previous experience, and now, having seen what it's like, she thinks next year will be a lot easier, and hopefully attract more attendees.
She said the event drew between 400 and 500 people this year, but said she thinks that's partially because the event was put back on track so soon before it began, so she suspects it will have more people next year.
Regardless of the turnout, she said, everyone seemed to be having a good time and she thanked everyone who contributed their time to volunteer for the event, the people who donated to the event, and everyone who attended.
"I saw so many new faces," Denny said. "It was just great to see that many people enjoying themselves with great music, so many people stepped up and showed what community was about."
She said she's definitely sticking around for next year, and is in the process of looking for an enthusiastic but level-headed co-chair who will be able to help her with next year's event.
She said being a co-chair for the event will certainly require time and energy, but it's not as overwhelming as it may seem, and is pretty manageable.
Reader Comments(0)