POTTSTOWN >> The organizers of Independence Day activities in the borough are getting things rolling earlier than ever, and more broadly than ever, in the hopes of reviving the event and returning fireworks to the celebration.
At a press conference at Pottstown High School Wednesday evening, Marcia Levengood, co-chairwoman of Independence Day Ltd., announced that two more high school homecoming queens have agreed to participate in fundraising and compete for the title of July 4th Homecoming Queen.
And things are off to a good financial start thanks to a $10,000 donation from Sly Fox Beer, which was delivered Wednesday via an oversized check by owner John Giannopoulos and his son Peter, operations manager at the brewery.
‘We’re moving things forward and today is the day we roll it out,” said Chip Smale, Levengood’s brother and co-chairman of Independence Day Ltd.
In addition to the addition of the queens – which now includes Pottstown, Pottsgrove, Owen J. Roberts, Boyertown, Daniel Boone and Spring-Ford – the organization has also made arrangements with 12 area banks and credit unions to make it even easier for supporters to donate.
“People can go in an deposit their paycheck and just say ‘hey, put $5 toward the Fourth of July,'” said Smale. “We’ve made things as simple as we possibly can for people to donate.”
Participating banks are Citadel, Diamond Credit Union, First Niagara, Fulton Bank, Malvern Federal Savings, National Penn Bank, PNC, Superior Federal Credit Union, Susquehanna Bank, TriCounty Federal Credit Union, Victory Bank and Wells Fargo.
“We tried to do it strategically so that people in all of the participating school districts have an easy place to go to make a donation,” Levengood said.
Donations have dwindled in recent years to the point that the fireworks display for which Pottstown’s July 4th celebrations had always been known have been cancelled for the last two years.
Levengood said they estimate $50,000 to $70,000 is needed to put on a display and hold events in the park as has happened in the past.
She said about $5,000 is left over from last year’s fundraising “so we already have enough for the parade, now we want to do the rest.”
That is one of the things Giannopoulos said he and his employees would like to see as well, so they decided to step up.
“We were sitting in a meeting this summer and our sales manager Patrick said you know Pottstown won’t have fireworks again this year, and wouldn’t it be neat if we could help out,” Giannopoulos said.
“We’ve kind of become entrenched in Pottstown,” he said, indicating that in addition to Sly Fox, he is also a partner in Manatawny Still Works, also in Circle of Progress, and a new keg-making operation getting started on Robinson Street.
“We’ve got three companies here. We’re committed to Pottstown and we feel like we should help out,” he said.
“Pottstown really supports us,” said Peter Giannopoulos, “and we want to support Pottstown.”
There will be many opportunities for others who feel equally motivated to make a contribution.
The first is this Sunday from 3 to 5 p.m., when a wine tasting and auction will be held at Lily’s Grill, 115 E. High St., to support the drive to raise money for fireworks.
Admission is two identical bottles of wine, one for tasting and one for auctioning off. All proceeds will benefit fundraising for the Fourth of July celebration.
Another opportunity comes on Thanksgiving, during the traditional football game between Pottstown and Owen J. Roberts.
Levengood said each school’s queen will have a table to accept donations (votes) at that game.
Other opportunities for other fundraising activities can be found on the interactive calendar on the event’s official web site – www.pottstown4thofjuly.org.
Also, the web site has been upgraded to accept donations through PayPal as well as credit card, said Levengood.
Additionally, each queen from each school will have a section on the web page where donations can be made.
As in previous years, the queen who raises the most money – each penny counts as one vote – will be crowned the Fourth of July Queen.
New this year is a “traveling trophy,” created and donated by the Trophy and Plaque Shack, 509 E. High St., that will reside at the winning queen’s home school for a year until a new winner is chosen the following year.
The queen’s name will be engraved on the trophy.
This year’s queens are: Eliana Arroyo-Dech from Pottstown; Wendy Ni from Pottsgrove; Samantha Garritano from Owen J. Roberts; Jess Kurtz from Boyertown; Rebecca Nitka from Daniel Boone and Michaela Paar from Spring-Ford.
Of course you can also donated the old fashioned way, by mailing a check, made payable to Independence Day Ltd., to P.O. Box 199, Pottstown, PA 19464.
Levengood also took the occasion to thank Pottstown Mayor Sharon Thomas for her “unique way of getting involved in our fundraising campaign.”
When Thomas marries a couple, as she is empowered to do as mayor, she asks the couple to make a donation to the Fourth of July fund. “So far, we have received $200. Thank you mayor,” said Levengood.
Also new this year is something old.
As a new tradition, “each year we will have a theme to our event and the theme for 2015 will be celebrating the Borough of Pottstown’s bicentennial,” said Levengood.
“The borough of Pottstown was incorporated as a borough in 1815. We will be 200 years old in 2015,” she said.
Something new is also new this year.
Independence Day Ltd. is also on Facebook and Twitter @pottstown4th.
Levengood and Smale said some of the new initiatives came about as the result of the report put together by the TriCounty Chamber of Commerce’s leadership panel, while others were the committee’s own, or already in the works last year.