SEATTLE -- For one, there's the guy on the riding mower trimming the hillside at Gas Works Park. There's also the two city workers in the cherry picker truck painting rust colors over the graffiti on the old factory towers. Don't forget the road crew running up and down Wallingford Avenue, setting up hundreds of "No Parking" signs.
And of course, there's the dozen or so hard hats over at Foss Maritime's shipyard, preparing two barges to take on more than 4,000 mortar shells.
A lot of prep work is going into the 2010 Family Fourth Fireworks Show on Lake Union, and it's still five days away.
"We've got some new things this year." said Jon Berson, the show's lead pyrotechnician with Sacramento-based Pyro Spectacular. "There are a couple things I'm not going to divulge, but when you see them you'll kind of go 'Wow! that was cool. Just think water... Think water."
But with the fall of Washington Mutual, and Chase Bank signing on for only the 2009 sponsorship, this is the Family Fourth that almost wasn't.
At least, until Dave Ross's 15-minute rant on his radio talk show in April turned into a round-the-clock "Save the Fireworks" telethon.
"I had literally no idea that when we started the show that morning that in 24 hours we'd have half a million dollars raised," said Ross, who also credits local restaurateur Tom Douglas for jump-starting the donations. "People couldn't believe that a city the size of Seattle wouldn't have its own fireworks show."
About 300 local businesses and residents called in to help. Matching $125,000 grants from Microsoft and Starbucks sealed the deal.
"It truly became a community celebration," Ross said. For his part, Ross gets to lead the countdown this year.
And Seattle gets a Family Fourth that lives up to its theme: "A Celebration for the People, By the People."
"It just shows how important it is to the community," said Alicia Gilman, who lives near the park. "I get invited to go places, but we always stay here because it's a lot of fun, and we always sit in the streets and watch the fireworks."
So thankful is Pyro Spectacular for the groundswell support that they're donating an extra thousand shells for the show's finale Sunday night.
"We've been talking about it with lots of other communities," said Berson. "Lots of communities across the country are having issues raising funds to do fireworks displays. There's been a lot of efforts in a lot of communities, but certainly Seattle... incredible effort."
Seattle Police said they will be out in force as usual on Sunday, but visitors should expect them to do away with the restrictive parking approach they took last year so people don't have to walk as far to get to the park.
To add a comment, please register or login.