By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
Katherine Guenther rarely gets to watch Yachats’ 4th of July fireworks show. She’s too busy making sure volunteers are at their stations, that the out-of-town fireworks crew has everything they need, or that any last-minute emergencies are dealt with.
But the 15-minute display wouldn’t go on unless Guenther and her Yachats Fireworks Committee didn’t raise the $20,000 needed to do everything from hire the fireworks company to rent six port-a-potties.
It starts each January when Guenther writes a check to Canby-based Western Display Fireworks, ensuring the show will go on at 10 p.m. each July 4.
“Most people don’t realize that in almost every community fireworks show there are volunteers giving up their time to make sure it all happens,” says Heather Gobert, owner of Canby-based Western Display, which provides the pyrotechnics and staff that caps Yachats’ Fourth of July celebration. “It’s a tremendous amount of work, time and effort that goes into these events.”
This will be Guenther’s 19th year of orchestrating Yachats’ show. Her first year the budget was $6,000, with the city contributing half. Now the budget is close to $20,000, the city contributing $2,000 and the rest donated by individuals, clubs and businesses.
Guenther uses Yachats-area real estate records to mail solicitation letters each June seeking donations. Her mailing list was once 200; now it’s 1,800. Donations from outside Yachats double those of city residents.
“We get contributions from around the country,” she said. Volunteers also solicit donations for the next year’s show during the community’s la de da parade.
The largest regular donation is $1,000 from a contributor who wants their donation to be the largest, Guenther says. A $500 check comes from a woman “who just likes fireworks.”
The two other members of the fireworks committee are Ernie Smith and Mark Dortch. They have a regular group of 20 volunteers who work from 1-10:30 p.m. manning street barricades and directing traffic.
The fireworks are shot from the parking lot of Yachats State Park, where the fireworks committee dumps 20 yards of sand to provide a base for racks of fireworks.
The crew from Western Display arrives about 2 p.m. to start setting up the display. It’s one of 200 shows – fairs, festivals, sporting events and July 4th holiday events — the company will orchestrate this summer around the Northwest, says Gobert. The rest of the year it does 150.
Western Display handles 20 holiday fireworks shows along the coast, Gobert says, from Astoria to Brookings. It augments its 12 full-time employees with up to 1,000 part-time, seasonal workers. Yachats’ show, she says, is a pretty normal community-sized event. Western’s biggest July 4th show is in Idaho Falls, Idaho, which Gobert says has a budget “far in excess of $100,000.”
There’s little last-minute when it comes to fireworks, Gobert says. Western has already placed its orders for 2020 from manufacturers in China, buying up to eight shipping containers a year.
Each event involves state licenses, local permits, insurance and even a specially certified truck driver to deliver fireworks.
“Last minute in this business is two to six weeks out,” Gobert says.
Fireworks have gone high-tech. Technicians once loaded individual shells into metal mortars and lit them. Now they are placed in racks at the company’s Canby headquarters, wired together at the show and ignited electronically for a continuous show.
“We have thousands and thousands of effects in our repertoire,” Gobert says.
Guenther relies on Western’s expertise on what’s new and what crowds like. She does look at the number of 3-, 4- and 5-inch shells in the display, using an estimate of fireworks flying 100 feet per inch of shell.
“You can really tell the difference with the big shells,” she said.
Gobert said the Trump Administration’s trade wars with China haven’t affected prices, yet. Recent price increases, she said, have been due to more stringent Chinese regulation of their fireworks factories.
Guenther said Western Display warned her a couple of years ago that prices were going up “and you may notice a shorter display.” The solution, she says, is a bigger budget from more contributions.
The work doesn’t end for the Yachats Fireworks Committee once the show is over. On July 5, volunteers meet at the state park to scoop up and haul away the sand.
“Do you know how hard it is to get rid of sand at the beach?” Guenther laughs.
To contribute:
Make checks payable to the Yachats Fireworks Committee and mail to P.O. Box 940, Yachats, Ore. 97498, or drop off at the Emerald Coast Realty office downtown.
la de da Parade:
It’s still not too late to march, walk or roll in the la de da Parade starting at noon, Thursday, July 4. The parade assembles in the parking lot of Yachats Community Presbyterian Church and heads west on Seventh Street before going south on Ocean View Drive and following it all the way to Beach Street.
Sponsored by the Yachats Chamber of Commerce, it is the parade’s 23rd year.
Entry forms are available at the Yachats Visitors Center next to the C&K Market. The parade is open to almost anyone or anything — marching groups, local organizations, non-motorized floats, musicians, kids on bikes and dogs on leashes. Entry forms can be returned by email to info@yachats.org
More information is available by calling the Visitors Center at 541-547-3530.
Other July 4 events:
Yachats Lions Club pancake breakfast: 7:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m., Lions Club Hall, W. Fourth Street; $7.
Yachats Ladies Club pie and ice cream social: 10:30 a.m., Yachats Ladies Club, West Third and Pontiac streets.
Yachats Youth and Family Activities Program: YYFAP’s annual fundraiser “Duck Race for Kids” starts at 5 p.m. at Yachats River bridge.
Yachats Big Band: The band kicks off it’s first Thursday event at 7 p.m. in the multipurpose room of the Yachats Commons.
Yachats Farmers Market: Usually open on Sundays, the market adds July 4 to its summer schedule. Its hours are 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on West Fourth Street just south of the Yachats Commons.
Yachats Arts Guild: The guild kicks off its four-day summer show at 10 a.m. in Room 8 of the Yachats Commons. The show continues 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, July 5 through Sunday, July 7.