Brayden Kingery, 7, (in flag shirt) of Elliston, and Raylan Connor, 7, of Shawsville at last year’s event go to school together and are good friends. Their moms and dads went to school together and are also good friends.
Liz Kirchner
In Shawsville, it’s a relaxed Fourth of July celebration that begins with a 5k run in the morning, a parade featuring antique cars and a kazoo band in the afternoon, summer field events in the cool of the evening, all culminating in fireworks at dark.
For 41 years, a handful of Shawsville Ruritan Club members, in a system of making do and wearing many hats, have made this event happen.
“The club has 29 members, said Melinda Smith, secretary of Shawsville Ruritan Club replying immediately to an instant message on the group’s Facebook page.
The club isn’t that large Smith says, so everyone wears many hats: Robert Pilkington is Elvis in the parade in the morning, swapping his gold lamé bellbottoms for a muscle man T-shirt to man the dunk tank at the field games in the afternoon and Montgomery County Supervisor Steve Fijalkowski, whose District C includes Shawsville, will take a dunk tank turn this year.
“You have to wear many hats when living in a small community such as ours,” Smith said. “That’s part of the fun of it. As for our clown, Scott Hagood, he is always in charge of lining up participants for the parade.”
“We’ve been having this Fourth of July celebration Since the Beginning,” Smith said. “1978. We haven’t missed a year. We almost ended it, but there was passionate conversation and we kept it going.”
It’s a leisurely schedule. At 8 a.m. the 5 K Race and Fun Run launches from 4179 Oldtown Road.
“We have serious and not-so-serious runners. Mothers pushing carriages and some really fast runners,” says Smith. “The track and field coach at the HS became a member of the Ruritan and we adopted the race
All proceeds from the race help to support running programs as well as scholarships at the local high school.
“We have tried to keep our entry fees low enough for all to participate,” an announcement for the run said, “and for $25, entries can expect fruit, melon, and water refreshments as well as many valuable door prizes. The race is broken down into 5-year-span age groups. First through third place finishers in each age group receive a medal.”
At 4:30 p.m., the Parade and Car Show begins.
“The feature in the parade is a kazoo band. We always always have the kazoo band,” Smith said. “I know it sounds absurd. It’s just part of what we are!”
Just show up she says. The Ruritan Club will supply the kazoos.
“I’m not sure how that started. We wanted to have a marching band, but we couldn’t get one so we said we’ll just have one of our own.”
They’re a musical bunch.
“My husband, George Smith, besides co-chairing the 4th committee with Paul Jenkins, is also the banjo player in the band Ft. Vause. Tim Thornton, our acting president, is also a band member.”
Smith said that, in addition to kazoos, in the parade this year E & E Auto has sponsored an antique car contest and there will be a float contest.
“This has been a good schedule for us,” Smith said. “We march down Oldtown Road and end at the Oldtown Fields where we have a singer to sing the Star Spangled Banner and start the field events.”
Field events include children’s games, a magician, the dunking booth and a balloon twister. Preparing for the event takes months and small club is trying to involve a lot of other civic groups.
There is a live auction stocked by a wide variety of area businesses like Rowe furniture that has contributed furniture and, this year, a black-powder pistol was donated by a club member. At dark, fireworks end the day.
