Community, volunteers keep the Fourth fabulous

The Sandpoint Lions Club once again says “thank you” to the many that made the Fourth of July salute to our country and community a success. The Lions are few and the theme, “Together, We Are One,” was only possible because of the many volunteer individuals and groups. We want everyone who helped to know that the Lions appreciate all your effort.

Everyone who bought and sold raffle tickets helped pay for the prizes and all the other celebration expenses. The Lions particularly thank all the businesses that provided space for our raffle ticket sales. These businesses include; Yoke’s, Walmart, The Hoot Owl, Schweitzer Conoco, Co-op Country Stores, Stacey’s Country Kitchen, and Super 1 Foods. Businesses which sold raffle tickets contributed significantly.

The Kids Parade had more than 200 participants and the Grand Parade had 84 entries; these were capably judged by Vicky Jacobson and Sue Lopez. A natural choice and making a wonderful grand marshal was The Bonner Hospital Auxiliary; parade announcer Bill Brown kept the crowd informed.

The Bonner County Amateur Radio Club earned special thanks for providing communication in controlling the parade. Thank you to Kim Woodruff and Austin in the Parks & Rec. Department for all your help.

Cherry Lane and her wonderful crew of flaggers along with the Sandpoint Police Department did an exceptional job in making traffic and the parade run smoothly.

A special Lions thank you goes to the veterans that provide the color guard and were a reminder that our troops are still in harms way defending our freedom. We were also honored to have the 25th Army Band from Boise this year, the music was outstanding.

Once again Mike Cosby brought together the fine local talent in the community for the event. We also want to thank the face painters.

Thank you to Fire Chief Robert Tyler in securing the marina and surrounding area for the fireworks shoot.

As special thank you goes to Entertainment Fireworks for helping to stretch our dollars and give us the biggest bang for our bucks. It was a great show.

Our “thank you list” will always fall short and the Lions apologize to all those we failed to mention. I must conclude by thanking all the Lion members and their families, who work very hard not only on the Independence Day Celebration but, on all of our projects. The Sandpoint Lions look forward to another great celebration in 2011.

Bill Lewis is past president of the Sandpoint Lions Club.