By Rich Wicks | Times Vedette
A jailbird waves to the crowd. Photo by Rich Wicks
The Yale Fourth of July celebration was held on Friday and Saturday. Betty Cooper, who led the planning for the event, provided her thoughts following the weekend.
“Overall, I think the weekend went well. We pulled in good crowds, people hung out in town for quite a bit, and we received great feedback about having the round gym open for the day,” Cooper said. “We heard positive feedback about crowd sizes being bigger than other years into the late afternoon but would have liked to have seen more people in the evening. We will continue to try to add events that are appealing to make this happen.
Cooper also pointed out specific parts of the celebration that were new or otherwise noteworthy.
Fair Queen Brooklyn Haines. Photo by Rich Wicks
“We had several great events that pulled in good crowds. We saw some more families join us on Friday with the added Chalk the Block event and ice cream truck. The 5K had 26 participants. Several people showed up to play pickleball, and bingo and the kid zone were big hits. But the biggest hit of all was the three-on-three basketball tournament in the round gym,” she said. “People showed up to watch the teams play basketball, but we also had crowds show up just to see the inside of the gym for the first time or to reminisce about old memories of the gym.
Cooper offered her thanks to all who helped make the weekend in Yale a success.
“It seems impossible to be able to thank everyone who helped make this event happen. We had several businesses make monetary donations and raffle donations. The kids and coaches from the Panorama Schools really showed up. The Panorama cross country coaches and team hosted the 5K, the Panorama boys basketball coach and team hosted the three-on-three basketball tournament, and the Panorama Junior Class helped with set-up, ran some stations, hosted the softball tournament and the popcorn and ice cream fundraiser in the evening.”
Lilah and Sadie Simpson pose on the oversize chair. Photo by Rich Wicks
Cooper also gave kudos to several other individuals and organizations.
“I could not have done this without Dale Louk, Buffy Louk, Joel Cooper, Emma Guzinski, Eli Cooper, Heather Beaudet, the Sloss family, Nathan and Courtney Hodges, Arilyan Steenblock, Micky Durbin Gymer, the Bagley Fire Department, Clint and Heather Deardorff, the Yale City Council, Jonetta Long, Duane Chaloupka, Kile and Susan Jackson, Miles Boatman, Grace Tripple, Ashley Hummel, the Lopez family, Jenny VanGundy and Jadyn Lawrence. I am so sorry if I am missing anyone. I am also sure that there are other people who did things that I am not even aware of. It truly takes a village to pull off something like this and I am thankful to be a part of the best community around. I felt so supported,” she said.
The following photos were taken by Eli Cooper.
Click images to enlarge.
