Get set for a bang-up 4th of July celebration

By Meg Olson

From pancakes in the morning to fireworks at dusk, the Fourth of July will be packed with good old-fashioned patriotic fun.

This year the Point Roberts Chamber of Commerce has chosen “Red and White and Blue,” as the theme for the Fourth of July parade. Whether you decorate your bike or your bus, the idea is to line Gulf Road with our national colors as we celebrate Independence Day.

The day begins with a pancake breakfast sponsored by the Point Roberts Park and Recreation District and the Point Roberts Emergency Preparedness group. In addition to pancakes from 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. there will be a flag-raising ceremony at approximately 9:45 a.m. featuring Shelby Raeburn on bagpipes and the Point Roberts Winds with Marilyn Turner on Trumpet.

The parade starts at noon at the Reef and ends at the foot of Tyee Drive by the marina. Parade participants will gather in the Breakers parking lot at 11 a.m. for position assignment. Advance applications are encouraged and the forms can be found at pointrobertschamberofcommerce.com. They can be submitted by email or dropped off at either the Saltwater Café or the Blue Heron Gallery. Parade participants can also register on site.

Then the fun moves to the marina where the beer garden and barbecue will get rolling right after the parade. Smokies and burgers will be for sale with more dining options in the Compass Rose restaurant.

In the beer garden, in addition to the usual wine and cider, “we will be having craft beers this year,” said organizer Whitney McElroy. Live music gets rolling at 3:30 p.m. with local favorites Steven Furno and Friends leading off, followed by Jeffrey Elvis and a variety of local and visiting acts until 11 p.m.

For the kids there will be a bouncy castle, a dunk tank and fish races. The fire department will be there with shiny red trucks and fire hoses ready.

Fireworks will start at 10:45 p.m.

Canada Day doesn’t get left out of the celebrations at the marina, running on July 1 from noon until 11 p.m. and is also capped off with a fireworks display.

The July 1 and 4 festivities at the marina are sponsored by the Point Roberts Food Bank and also serve as a fundraiser to support the food bank programs. McElroy said fundraising has been vigorous, with many individual donors coming forward with significant donations.

“The money is still coming in,” he said, and with donations and sales at the event itself he hopes there will be a healthy amount leftover for the food bank. “We want to make more money than it costs, of course, so we can feed some people,” he said. He added he plans to publish a list of all donors in the August edition of the All Point Bulletin.