Each Sunday we will feature a project going on within the city, happenings within a department or someone or agency which works hard to provide services to the community. This week we are talking about the city's Fourth of July Celebration - it's back!
If there's one thing we've learned this past year, there are heroes walking among us; those unsung frontline workers who continued to provide us with services despite the hazards and hardships they may have faced.
It is those Heroes Among Us we will be celebrating during the 2021 Portage Fourth of July festivities, including the health care workers, retail employees, teachers, volunteers, first reponders, restaurant workers and so many others.
This year's Fourth of July Celebration will be held on Saturday, July 3. The festivities are being organized by the Portage Event Partnership (PEP), a volunteer group in the city.
It will begin with a parade, kicking off at 10 a.m. from the corner of Willowcreek Road and Sunrise Avenue, heading north on Willowcreek Road, then east on Central Avenue to Vivian Street.
Applications to enter a unit in the parade will be available this coming week at City Hall, 6070 Central Ave.; at the Portage Parks Department office, 2100 Willowcreek Road or via email at nlaboy@portage-in.com.
We are asking all parade participants to decorate
their floats or other entries to coincide with the theme Heroes Among Us.
Additional information on entering a unit in the parade will be available on
the application.
At 5 p.m., we will be gathering at Founders Square for a great evening of food, music and a new special event.
Chronic Flannel, who performs hip-hop, pop, r&b, raggae and funk, will be taking center stage, providing pre-fireworks entertainment beginning at 5 p.m.
There will be about 10 food trucks offering a variety of foods, as well as a beer garden.
PEP is organizing a new event this year to be held during the festival - an apple pie eating contest. The contest's particulars are still in the early planning stages, but we are hoping to have children and adults compete in their own rounds and possibly a pie eating round between our firefighters and police officers.
The evening will end with the traditional fireworks, set to launch at dusk (sometime between 9 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.).
