ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
The 4th of July holiday is right around the corner, and plans are currently being finalized for this year’s festivities, including the parade.
This year’s 4th of July Parade will be Friday, July 4, with staging starting at 9 a.m. and the parade itself starting at 10 a.m. Staging will be at Trail Street, and the parade will start there and go north to Light Park, where the 4th of July Committee will be hosting a fun day in the park for everyone following the parade. The day in the park will wrap up later that afternoon, and then people can head to Brent Gould Field that evening for the annual Bee Jays baseball game and fireworks show afterward.
“The 4th of July is on a Friday this year, so that should be a great extended weekend for a lot of people, and what better way to kick that off than watching the parade, spending the day in the park and then enjoying a good baseball game and fireworks show?” coordinator Earl Watt said. “The 4th of July festivities in Liberal have definitely evolved from the Bee Jays game in the evening followed by the fireworks show to a full day of fun. Another great way to show your patriotism is to come out and cheer on these military veterans and the people who spent the time and effort to put these floats together. The biggest show of appreciation is to let them know we’re proud of them and what they’ve worked on. We just encourage everyone to come out and honor these veterans and the sacrifices they made so we can celebrate freedom, because they’re the ones who paid the price.”
Watt added the day in the park should also be a good time for everyone, and it is good those festivities will be returning.
“National Beef will be buying out Adventure Bay that day, so everyone will be able to get in for free, which is amazing. Candi Garcia and Claudia Garcia will be in charge of the day in the park, but I know there are already multiple vendors confirmed and/or about to be confirmed, which is also neat,” Watt said. “I know there are also plans for the Little Miss Firecracker Pageant to come back, and anyone wanting to be part of that would need to get in touch with either Candi or Claudia to get signed up. What happened last year was Doug Munsell, who was our go-between with our parade committee and the Recreation Department, sadly passed away, and he was one of the sparks for our current 4th of July festivities. On the Sons of the American Revolution side, we’d been talking about having some type of public event or celebration, and a parade was brought up as an idea. At that same time, Candi and Claudia Garcia were talking about doing a celebration in the park, and Doug had been wanting to present an idea to us about a public event for the community to celebrate the holiday. Within a week, we all came together and started talking about how we could put this all together. When Doug passed away, that connection was briefly broken – we still did the parade last year, but not the day in the park, and we’re happy to be able to bring that back for this year, and we want to keep that partnership going forward. This isn’t just the doing of one person, the work is divided among a few different people, and we all end up coming together for a day of fun.”
The parade and 4th of July festivities are only a few years old, and Watt said he is happy everything has gained so much traction in a short time.
“We filled a void. The Bee Jays 4th of July game has been a big deal for a long time now, and the fireworks display afterward is second to none compared to other big city displays. We had that part taken care of, but there was a want for something more,” Watt said. “The furthest back we could find any mention of a 4th of July parade was back in the 1930s, but there was no ongoing effort to sustain that, so we thought this would be a great chance to revive it and really establish something that could become another Liberal tradition. We’re far away from Pancake Day, Homecoming, Halloween and the other major holidays, and the fair is still a while away, so we wanted to fill that gap and have the 4th of July be a full day experience in Liberal instead of just that evening. We’ve loved the response we’ve seen with the floats and other celebrations, and we want to see that keep growing as time goes on, and we can’t thank National Beef enough for buying out Adventure Bay Water Park for that day. We just want this to be another great Liberal tradition.”
Watt said this year’s parade could also have a couple surprises.
“We’re working on something that could also serve as a bit of a preview for this year’s Christmas Parade, so people should stay tuned for that, because this year will mark the 25th anniversary of the Christmas Parade, which we’re excited about,” Watt said. “We want this to be for more than just the Liberal community, we want this to be a celebration for the entire region, especially in terms of building up for the 250th anniversary next year, which I think will end up being huge all across the U.S. We want to build this 4th of July celebration up to being a regional celebration. And not to take away from any other community’s celebrations, but if there’s anywhere that doesn’t have a 4th of July parade, we would definitely welcome them to come here and celebrate in Liberal.”
Overall, Watt said, he is expecting another successful and fun 4th of July holiday in Liberal.
“As a community, there are times when we come together, but the 4th of July is special because it’s a celebration of our country’s founding, and the Founding Fathers risked their lives and everything else to help start this American experiment, and it’s gone strong for 249 years,” Watt said. “There are times when I feel we don’t really appreciate everything we have as people, and sometimes we need a reminder of what we have going on here and how fortunate we all are. The U.S. is not like any other country on the planet, there’s something very unique and special about what happened here, and everyone should take the day to come together.”
