Saving the Fireworks
I haven't liked fireworks since I was twelve. I don't usually stay up to watch the various fireworks shows; or go out with people in the neighborhood to light them. As I saw one guy loading up black trash bags filled to bursting with used shells, I couldn't help but ponder how much he had spent on them. When my Mom lived on Lake Union, I went up to a July 4 party but left well before the pyrotechnics began; I didn't want to get caught in traffic at 12:30 in the morning.
Anyway. That paragraph was not terribly germane to the story, but just tells you where I'm coming from.
The Lake Union July 4 fireworks show was in a bad way. The nonprofit company that puts on the annual show didn't have the half-million dollars to do it in 2010. One Reel was set to cancel the yearly tradition. That is, until a local celebrity had his say.
Tom Douglas, a local chef of note, got on the radio, and sounded the call for local businesses to donate to the July 4 fund. If 500 local businesses put up $1,000; the show would be paid for. If one hundred businesses donated $5,000; that would do. Starbucks and Microsoft put up $125,000 each. Donations in the thousands of dollars came from businesses around the community. In less than a day, the fireworks show was saved.
This is the America that we celebrate each year. Local communities and businesses that come together to save a tradition amd to work for a common goal. Where we can raise half a million dollars in less than a day because we know that it is right to do so. As different as everyone in the country is, whether where they're from, what they do, what they believe, we all come together for one glorious day in the summer to celebrate our independence.
Yes, we should be mindful and vigilant when it comes to our freedom, in the micro- and macro- sense. But we should also celebrate those companies that do the right thing when it would be terribly easy to say "Nope, can't do it. We're in a recession and don't have anywhere to cut". Celebrate what is right and good with America.
Anyway. That paragraph was not terribly germane to the story, but just tells you where I'm coming from.
The Lake Union July 4 fireworks show was in a bad way. The nonprofit company that puts on the annual show didn't have the half-million dollars to do it in 2010. One Reel was set to cancel the yearly tradition. That is, until a local celebrity had his say.
Tom Douglas, a local chef of note, got on the radio, and sounded the call for local businesses to donate to the July 4 fund. If 500 local businesses put up $1,000; the show would be paid for. If one hundred businesses donated $5,000; that would do. Starbucks and Microsoft put up $125,000 each. Donations in the thousands of dollars came from businesses around the community. In less than a day, the fireworks show was saved.
This is the America that we celebrate each year. Local communities and businesses that come together to save a tradition amd to work for a common goal. Where we can raise half a million dollars in less than a day because we know that it is right to do so. As different as everyone in the country is, whether where they're from, what they do, what they believe, we all come together for one glorious day in the summer to celebrate our independence.
Yes, we should be mindful and vigilant when it comes to our freedom, in the micro- and macro- sense. But we should also celebrate those companies that do the right thing when it would be terribly easy to say "Nope, can't do it. We're in a recession and don't have anywhere to cut". Celebrate what is right and good with America.