After months of planning for a day of community celebration, the BG BOOM Festival and Fireworks on Monday was a huge success, according to a press release by the chamber of commerce.
The highlight was the expanded 35-minute firework display put on by Rozzi Fireworks, which drew rave reviews and left the crowd cheering.
“We couldn’t be happier with the attendance and for the people that have reached out to the chamber with congratulations and thanks,” said Mary Hinkleman, executive director for the chamber.
“It is always nice to hear this when your team has worked so hard on putting all this together. The vision of bringing the community together to celebrate Independence Day with a festival in addition to the fireworks has proven successful in just two years. A family could attend without worry of the cost to enjoy the inflatables and the games. This is all done with the generous sponsorships and donations of the businesses, organizations, and people in our community.”
Prior to the event, a logistics meeting was held to cover every detail of the event. This meeting was attended by at least one representative of all offices, departments and organizations who had a part in the event, including city administration, police and fire divisions, Wood County Sheriff’s Office, Rozzi Fireworks, Northwest Ohio Tractor Pullers Association, Wood County Agriculture Society Fair Board, BG Area Community Band and Visit BG Ohio.
The Northwest Ohio Tractor Puller Association Board of Directors played a big role in the event by allowing Rozzi to use their property for the fireworks launch site. Additionally, the NWOTPA made sure the field was cut, baled and cut again to provide ideal conditions for the fireworks launch.
The Wood County Agriculture Society was a major help in setting up and preparing for the festival. They set up chairs for the community band, put out picnic tables and trash cans and set up roadblocks to control traffic flow.
The support from the fire, police and public works Departments was a huge asset. Safety features were installed at the launch site to specifications of the State Fire Marshal, the mortar setup and the pyrotechnics were also inspected.
The sheriff’s office provided security of the launch site, patrolled the festival and helped the chamber with golf carts for transportation needs. The sheriff’s office also provided drone coverage of the firework launch site to identify any potentially unsafe hot spots.
The sheriff’s auxiliary offered the security of a quick response, if needed.
Kristen Kreienkamp, event lead for the chamber, was the main point person throughout the planning process and on the day of the event. She coordinated all of the social media efforts and led project team planning meetings and the logistics meeting.
The project team met for months to create and monitor the plan for fundraising, volunteer recruitment and the overall event. The committee is made up of chamber investors who volunteer. The project team’s shairman, Mark Cassin (State Bank and BGCC Secretary), was assisted by committee members Greg Esposito (InTech IT Solutions and BGCC Past President), Melinda Kale (Work Leads to Independence), Thom Headley (BG Area Community Band), Kat Patterson (Visit BG Ohio), Victoria Schroeder (Wal-Mart), Tom Kehres (Wal-Mart) and Chris Gulgin (BioFit).
The Chamber would like to thank the festival volunteers, as well as the group of 20 volunteers that came out to assist in cleaning up the fairgrounds on July 4.
