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Time for a Fourth of July!

The Point Roberts Independence Day celebration is going into rewind this year to make it more simple to plan and to enjoy. “If this was 100 years ago, how would Point Roberts get together to celebrate the Fourth? They’d have a parade, some games, a picnic and a big fire on the beach,” said organizer Arthur Wilkowski. “That’s what we’re planning.”

The day will kick off with the traditional parade along Gulf Road. The theme this year is red, white and blue, “a celebration of independence and freedom,” said parade organizer Jenny Lynn Fraser. The parade route will again run from the Breakers to the marina overflow parking lots at the bottom of Tyee Drive. Fraser said she has been dropping forms off at local businesses and the post office for people to pick up. The forms can be faxed to Fraser in advance or brought to the parade. “You never know haw many entries you’ll get until it happens,” Fraser said.

Following the parade the festivities will move to Lighthouse Park. On the boardwalk, local non-profit groups will run booths in a fundraising children’s carnival reminiscent of the fairways of the state fair but on a smaller scale. “At first Dollars for Scholars was going to do it alone, but they don’t have the manpower or the resources,” Wilkowski said. “It’s better to try and do it together, bring in more groups, have more games and more prizes.” Local non-profits who want to sponsor a booth are responsible for coming up with the game and running it. Organizers will provide space and sell tickets and groups can decide how much to charge for tickets. At the end of the carnival groups can redeem their tickets for their cut of the pot. “You have to show up, set up and make it work,” Wilkowski said. “All we’re doing is providing a framework and we have some suggestions.”

In the open area between the boardwalk and the beach, local businesses will sponsor old-fashioned games like the tug-of-war, three-legged race, watermelon-seed spitting, a real wheelbarrow race for couples, and the skillet toss. “We’re looking for businesses to think up and sponsor games,” Wilkowski said. His business, Point Recycling and Refuse, has dibs on the wheelbarrow race and the skillet toss, while Triple M Realty is running the tug of war. Sponsors come up with the equipment for the game and run the show. “If you’re sponsoring it, you’re doing it, but the time commitment can be pretty small depending on what you do,” Wilkowski said.

Lighthouse Café on the beach, which opened at the end of May for the season, will provide barbeque specials. People are also welcome to bring their own picnics and barbecues.

In the evening, fireworks will be replaced with a bonfire. “I’m envisioning a pile as big as a VW bug,” Wilkowski said. The fire will be lit around 5 p.m. and burn until 8 p.m. “Then we’ll douse it and head home,” Wilkowski said.
Wilkowski said he hoped simplifying the Fourth and spreading the burden of events from the small core of organizers to the community at large would help the event grow. “The only way we can grow a great hometown July 4 is if people take responsibility for it. We’ve already got a great hokey parade so let’s build on it. We’re just going to have a lot of cheap, hokey, family fun.”

For info on participating in the carnival or sponsoring a game, or to offer any ideas for the day, call Wilkowski at 945-1951..

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