I asked Dan Freeman, this year’s chair of Northfield’s 4th of July Hometown Celebration, who should be thanked for helping to make it happen. Dan wrote:
Hey Griff, here are the names of people who chaired various events for the 4th:
- Ed Kulhman and Mary Titus: the 4th Flea Market
- Hayes Scriven and Scott Elmer: the Northfield Historical Society Hospitality Tent and Clean up.
- Father Denny Dempsey and Cindy Brown: the Northfield Girl Scouts and the St. Dominic Catholic Church Kids’ Carnival.
- Lynn Ziegler: the Northfield Dance Academy on the Showmobile
I think that’s about it but there were many other people who stepped in to help. Obviously, all the sponsors are the reason we even have a 4th of July Celebration in this town. Finally, thanks to you for recording in pictures this wonderful day in Northfield’s history.
The photos above (center, right) are from the back page, 12A, of the July 2 Northfield News, listing those businesses, organzations, and individuals who provided sponsorship dollars this year.
Of course, Dan Freeman had something to do with all this. Thanks, Danny.
I know I am not the only one who is so grateful for the time and effort and other resources Dan, and all the other people give so cheerfully for this event. Many people who stayed in town were well rewarded. This is a very pretty place and hard to find a reason to venture out very far for the holidays.
With my dh doing all of his computer consulting and programming work from home now, we have the choice to move elsewhere, but have dragged our feet on even looking, that I think we might just stay awhile. 🙂
In the past I have done some volunteer work, but have fallen off the call list apparently, as I had a bad year or two health wise. But, I am back and will accept phone and mail type work, nothing too physical, for the future.
Just let me know who to call, or contact me at bright@beautywood.com
…put ‘volunteer’ in the subject line so I don’t delete.
Sometimes out of struggle come triumphs we never dreamt of until the cold steel of failure stares into our eyes. When faced with the fact that with literally only days to go we had only raised about one third of what we needed, sleep was hard to come by. With the risng of the sun each day however, came the faith that if each day we could do just a little we would perservere.
The first of many heartening stories came when I retuned home late one night and listened to my messages. “Hi Dan, this is Vicki calling from Present Perfect. I just thought you’d like to know that today three young boys came into the store with some money they’d raised from selling lemonade. The said they wanted it to go toward helping pay for the fireworks.” How can you even think about letting those boys down.
The next day I got a check in the mail from a dear friend of mine who lives in rural Northfield. The check was for fifteen dollars. Her accompaning note said, ” I know it’s not much but I hope this helps if only a little bit.” How can one even dare to think of letting her and her family down. Then the flood gates opened and with the help of the Northfield News article and Dr. Griff’s blogging money and encouragement came rolling in.
As of tonight I’m still not sure if we’ve made it. I know we’re close but I won’t be sure for a few more weeks. There are about ten more entities who haven’t quite made up their mind either how much or even if they are going to give. In the meantime we will be selling hot dogs and brats and Pepsi products down at Econfoods this coming Friday and Saturday to raise money for the 4th. If we have made it then this money will go toward next years celebration. If we haven’t then it will bring us closer to our target.
As always, I am overwhelmed by the undying generosity of the people of this town. I think we need to hold this celebration during these times more than ever. Simply because we need to have some place to go to look our neighbors in the eye and just be glad we can get together. Life goes by pretty fast these days and if we aren’t careful we’ll miss alot of it. If we can take the time to come down town every now and then and simply say “Hi” to our neighbors and sit and listen a while as our friends and neighbors entertain us, maybe we can realize how fortunate we are. Fortunate to live in a town where people care so deeply about their neighbors, where on a daily basis people are doing good works for one another and where generosity of wealth and spirit are a part of our daily lives.
This generosity never fails to inspire me, to move me and to make me grateful to live in this place called Northfield. Thanks to all who helped and thanks to all who came and enjoyed themselves. We’ll see you again next year.
Dan,
You are one of Northfield’s finest and I surely enjoyed meeting you and the trip we shared together from the airport.
I am so happy things turned out well for the 4th and I just wanted to thank you for the kindness you shared with me when I was there.
Charlene
It was fun to hear local talent on the 4th and we thoroughly enjoyed Madelyn Hartke and the band even though we’re older and didn’t know many of the numbers they performed. I understand there are numberous “garage bands” in N’field – let’s hear more from them. I was disappointed there was no reading of the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, etc. All in all, however, it was a lovely 4th. What fun to watch those fellows playing 1776 baseball! Northfield is such a lovely town, too bad so many unlovely words and attitudes seem to prevail at the City Council level. Maybe we all need to take a deep breath and count to ten before we speak, and temper our words with some “loveliness”.