Between The Lines
Adam Rudnick's reporter notebook
Community effort required to put on Fourth of July events
July 6th, 2010 at Tue, 6th, 2010 at 10:22 am by AdamTo say Carol Jacques was elated would be an understatement.
Standing in the back of a crowd of about 200 people, Jacques was the only one of three grand prize winners on hand during the Rotary Club of Arlington’s Great Stilly Duck Dash awards presentation on July 4.
Jacques yelled out and threw her hands up in the air when Rotary member Dale Duskin announced that Jacques had won $1,000. She quickly made her way up to the makeshift stage — the club’s float that had just been part of the Grand Parade — and hugged the club’s members who were reading the winners’ names.
Jacques’ reaction to winning the monetary prize really summed up what the Fourth of July is all about — giving community members a chance to get excited in these unsettling economic times.
I’m sure many Arlington residents enjoyed at least one Independence Day event, whether it was the fireworks display at the Boys & Girls Club or the Grand Parade.
But what people may not realize is how much work goes into organizing said events.
While I put in about 11 hours covering all the annual festivities, many of the volunteers and organizers were up at 7 a.m. and didn’t go home until after 10 p.m.
Arlington resident Michael Prihoda was one of, I’m sure, dozens of volunteers who put in at least 12 hours.
Kelly Penny, coordinator of both the Grand and Kiddies parades, had dozens of vehicles and hundreds of parade participants to keep in line — literally.
While these are just two examples of individuals who helped keep events running smoothly, I’m sure there were hundreds of other volunteers who did just as good of a job.
This year’s Fourth of July was my first covering Arlington and it was nice for me to see so many community members that I speak with every day in a different context, such as Prihoda (executive director of the Arlington-Smokey Point Chamber of Commerce) or Penny (community relations director for Cascade Valley Hospital and Clinics).
My full story on the Fourth of July events, complete with photo slideshows, can be viewed here.
Adam Adam Rudnick has worked as a reporter in Snohomish and Skagit counties since graduating from Western Washington University in 2006. Since then, he has written for a number of daily and weekly publications, most recently The Arlington Times and The Marysville Globe.
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