Published in the July 23 – August 5, 2014 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Frances Nance
Frances Nance
This year’s Morgan Hill Freedom Fest events were an amazing red, white, and blue success. Everyone in our community and the Silicon Valley region joined together in a celebration of patriotic pride. And yet, the annual Independence Day parade, the fireworks show, the July 3 Family Music Fest, the Patriotic Sing at Britton Middle School, the Freedom Run, and the Bike Classic could never have come together if it wasn’t for dedicated volunteers and generous sponsors.
The Freedom Fest events are put on by the nonprofit Independence Day Celebrations organization. Many of our volunteers have jobs, kids and other obligations, so the time and energy commitment required putting on the various events can be demanding. We do it because we love to see the joy in tens of thousands of faces when the events come together. People thank us for the work we’ve done, and they are truly grateful.
We look around and see the joy in people’s eyes, the laughter, the sense of community, and we know that we have contributed to enhancing the quality of life — and the feeling of love for America and our local community. It makes all the small personal sacrifices of time and effort leading up to the event worth it.
Putting on the Freedom Fest for a community-wide celebration of America’s birthday requires more than $100,000 every year. We at IDC operate solely on donations that we receive from individuals and businesses in the South Valley community. If we didn’t have sponsors, we would not have any events. That is why every little bit helps and every in-kind donation makes a difference. We sincerely want to thank everyone, from the individuals who sent in $1 to the corporation that donated $20,000.
Among our many sponsors, we’d like to acknowledge CommonWealth Central Credit Union as our Premier Sponsor; Honda of Morgan Hill, Johnson Lumber/Ace Hardware, Paramit Corporation as our We the People Sponsors; the Morgan Hill Times and Morgan Hill Youth Sports Alliances as our Stars & Stripes Forever Sponsors; Betto’s Bistro, Carino’s, ChaseVP, Cochrane Road Self Storage, Concept Cyclery, The Ford Store, Guglielmo Winery, KBAY, Granada Preservation Society, Morgan Hill Life, Odeum, and Smith Commercial Management, Inc. as our Freedom Sponsors. There were many more who we truly appreciate to make this year’s Freedom Fest possible.
The common thread for all this dedication is the small-town love for our Morgan Hill community and the desire to give back; the deep respect and gratitude toward anyone who served in military to protect this great country so we even have the opportunity to celebrate its birthday on the fourth of July; and the chance to be involved with fun people who care deeply about creating an amazing experience for our Morgan Hill community.
We want to start improving Freedom Fest for next year, so we are also looking for feedback from the local community about what we do well and what we can do better. If you have comments about the Morgan Hill Freedom Fest that you would like to share with us, please go to Morgan Hill Life’s website at www.morganhilllife.com and take the online survey located on the home page.
We’d love to have you join our Freedom Fest family. If you’re interested in teaming with us as a volunteer or as a sponsor to put on next year’s Freedom Fest events, please provide your contact information at the end of the online survey, or contact us at [email protected].
Join us and make a difference. Be a part of our 2015 birthday bash for America and our local community in the Morgan Hill Freedom Fest events.
