The Inside Veer - July 4th

During an interview with Rebecca Kitchen on KOLO-TV last week to promote the Fernley 4^th of July, Rebecca asked John Mueller and I how soon planning begins for each year’s 4^th of July. Rebecca chuckled when John said July 5^th, but in reality, planning for next year’s event started a couple of months ago. 

That’s mainly because July 1 next year is the 25^th anniversary of the City of Fernley’s incorporation, and to make it even better it’s also the 250^th anniversary of the United States. Google says a 250^th anniversary is called a Semiquincentennial, and I think we should do a drinking game where people have to try to pronounce that. 

July 1 next year is on a Wednesday, so the plan is to get all of the various community organizations together and hold a weeklong celebration with activities every day that culminates with the 4^th of July on Saturday. 

This year, though, we’re turning the 4^th of July celebration into a two-day event for the first time, with a Battle of the Bands on Thursday. But part of the planning for that is actually for next year as well. Since it’s our first time, we’re learning as we go about what it takes. We hope it’s successful this year, but even more so, we hope to learn what we don’t know and make it even better next year. 

Having attended the Fernley 4^th of July for several years, I had a general idea that it must be a huge scope of work to put it all together. But when I joined the 4^th of July committee three years ago, I realized I had no clue. There are so many moving parts, there’s a reason the planning takes 12 months.  

There’s also been quite a bit of turnover on our board over the past three years. Only two other members of the board were there when I joined, and one of those left and came back. Fortunately, past boards have kept meticulous records and created detailed schedules of tasks for each month. You can’t put on an event of this magnitude haphazardly, and after seeing how much time, effort and money it takes, I’m even more impressed with what past organizers did than I was from attending the event in years past. 

With the planning for this year behind us and nothing left to do but enjoy the day, my thoughts are already on next year’s huge anniversary celebration. If you’re involved with a community group, I hope we can work together and all have a hand in making it a weeklong festival. If you aren’t in a group, I hope you are willing to get involved individually. We intend to make it a community-wide celebration, and that means community-wide involvement. All ideas are welcome, and I’ll be sure to keep you posted on ways you can get involved.