ASHLAND — An effort has started in Ashland to revive the annual Independence Day fireworks program that delighted young and old for two decades.
The “Save the Ashland Fireworks” committee met for the first time Thursday at The Mineshaft Cafe, Ashland, to discuss what needs to be done to bring back a new version of “Thunder Over Ashland,” which was a community event of the American Hose Company No. 1 of Ashland.
After 20 years of fireworks programs at Memorial Field at the top of Ashland, the fire company announced in February that they would no longer hold the event due to declining donations and volunteers.
The Thursday meeting included the selection of three co-chairpersons — Al Razzis, Marlin Horan and Joanne Vaughn.
Vaughn said the idea of reviving the fireworks began with a few people like Razzis, Horan and Michael Bixler, owner of Bixler Pyrotechnics, Ashland, which provided the annual shows in recent years. She said they got her to become involved in the idea.
“We’re going to do some stuff tonight at the meeting to move ourselves forward to decide if we’re going to do it this year or next year,” Vaughn said. “It is a little short on time to try to do it in August.”
The effort began with using the “Thunder Over Ashland” name, but it has been dropped.
“It was requested by the American Hose that we don’t use the name,” Bixler said.
“It was kind of their baby,” Bixler said.
The project is relatively young and one major need is more volunteers.
“We’re having a hard time getting people to help,” Vaughn said. “We’re really struggling with that. It seems nobody wants to step up except for us few.”
Vaughn said volunteers are needed for more than fundraising. On the day of the event, volunteers are needed for setup and helping out during the program.
“On the day of the event we’re looking to have food sales and other vendors there to help raise funds,” Horan said. “We need a lot of volunteers to do that. We spoke with them (fire company) to get their input and it was mostly volunteers rather than the money they were struggling with. We’re trying to step up and keep the show going.”
The first sponsor is The Mineshaft Cafe, owned and operated by Cory Machese. He said before the meeting that the fireworks program in Ashland is a tradition that should continue.
“Joanne got me involved in it and I’d like to see it keep going,” Machese said. “It’s a good thing for the town and everyone enjoys it.”
If a fireworks program can be arranged for this year, it would be at a different day other than July 4, such as in August for the evening of Pioneer Day or in September after the ABA Parade.
Bixler said another goal is to find a nonprofit organization who the committee can cooperate with for its 501(c)3 status.
“People have already asked where they can send donations,” Bixler said.
“We’re basically crawling right now,” Razzis said. “It’s an idea (to save the fireworks) that came to light to try to preserve it.”
After the meeting, Vaughn said, “We are awaiting answers back from three organizations to see if we can umbrella under them (for fundraising), which would make it so much easier for us. And we are exploring what we can do for fundraising, but we can’t do much until we see if we can umbrella under someone.”
The next meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday at The Mineshaft Cafe. For more information or to volunteer, call Vaughn at 570-400-3587 or Horan at 570-527-1153.