Way to go, Rotary!

By Frank Phillips
frankphi@hotmail.com

The 68th Annual 4th of July Celebration is one for the history books. While I have no concrete information at hand, I think attendance and donation figures were excellent this year. Kudos to President Mike Feller and his entire team.

As you know, the Brazil Rotary Club uses proceeds from the annual 4th of July event to benefit people here in Clay County and around the world. It is a benevolent event, a fundraiser, as opposed to a profit-making program.

This was the first year I saw the workings of the event as an “insider”, having just joined the club. I thoroughly enjoyed the few tasks I was called upon to perform and marveled at how well the many details were carried out by club members.

Everything from the go-kart races on the weekend before the 4th through the fireworks seemed to be flawless; from my limited perspective, at least.

On a humorous note (which usually gets me in trouble) I sat in a ticket booth one evening, with some amount of cash locked in the booth with me, and was very happy to see Terry Harrison, the Brazil chief of police. He was out of uniform, but present, and that made me feel more secure. I imagine other law enforcement people watched the crowds, too.

I was also glad to see other friends, such as Greg Comp, minister of the First Christian Church. Greg was wearing a T-shirt with Bible scripture on the back. Somehow, I felt anyone with mischief on his mind would think twice after reading the T-shirt scripture verse.

I was also pleasantly surprised by the large number of teens on the midway. Kids across America often lament “there is nothing to do”. That was not true over the 4th of July in Brazil, Ind.!

It was also neat to see parents and grandpas and grandmas taking the little ones to ride the rides. I hope Linda and I can do the same in a few years, when our first grandchild is old enough to enjoy it.

Everyone seemed to have a great time.

As I say to people repeatedly, Brazil has a wonderful park and the 4th of July Celebration is just fabulous!