Community Bank of Oak Park River Forest is primed once again to sponsor the annual GALA July Fourth Fireworks Show, which is hosted by the nonprofit Great American Light Show Association. The display’s grand finale is co-sponsored by Wednesday Journal. The bank has been footing the bill for the fireworks display for the last 16 years said Ruth McLaren, a senior vice president with the bank.
“It’s a big community event and just about every other local community has cancelled their fireworks shows because they’re very expensive,” she said. “So we get people from all over the western suburbs and the West Side of Chicago.”
McLaren didn’t specify how much the bank spends on the annual display, but said costs include paying for the display itself as well as the cost of hiring security for the event. The fireworks, she said, are often shipped in from countries like China and Italy. Wednesday Journal has underwritten the show’s grand finale for at least a decade.
“We buy the show, pay the security and make sure it happens,” McLaren said. “We are a community bank and we believe this is one of our gifts to the community. This is our biggest signature event each year and we love doing it.”
It’s perhaps more than incidental that in the few municipalities where the displays can still be seen, the cost of putting them on is born by non-governmental entities such as businesses and nonprofits, or public-private partnerships.
In Evanston, for instance, the town’s fireworks display is produced by the privately funded, all-volunteer Evanston Fourth of July Association.
In Oak Park the village is free to focus its resources on organizing the Fourth of July parade that precedes the display and the more than 10,000 spectators that line its route each year. In all, both the parade and the fireworks display attract approximately 25,000 people, according to Community Bank’s website.
The show will be held Sat., July 4, and will begin at 9:15 p.m. at the football stadium of Oak Park and River Forest High School, 201 N. Scoville Ave. The show is free to the public, but street parking is limited. Attendees can park at village parking structures on Lake St. and Forest Ave. and North Blvd. and Oak Park Ave. No food and drinks are permitted on the fields around the stadium.
Parade route shortened
Cedric Melton, Oak Park’s community relations director, said that many of the responsibilities of organizing the annual parade that precedes the fireworks and controlling the crowds are doled out to volunteers.
“We have a very heavy volunteer contingent,” he said. “They come out and help the police man the barricades and provide traffic control.”
This year, Melton said, the parade route will be only minimally affected due to road construction taking place on Ridgeland Avenue between Division Street and South Boulevard.
“Construction work should be done by Saturday,” he said, adding that the route will be about two blocks shorter than previous years. The parade will kick off at 10 a.m. It will start at Longfellow Park at Ridgeland Avenue and Adams Street and head north on Ridgeland to terminate at Chicago Avenue — two blocks short of the Whittier and Augusta end point established in previous years.
The Oak Park Farmer’s Market will still be held on the Pilgrim Church parking lot at 460 Lake St.
CONTACT: michael@oakpark.com