Suzi Youngberg, President of the Legendary Key Largo Chamber of Commerce, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in Key Largo.
So many businesses give back to the community.
Youngberg said, “We are so fortunate with so many generous businesses and individuals who just give back to our community on a regular basis. As a matter of fact, if I can do a shout out to our top sponsors of the July 4 celebration, we are so fortunate, the Reefhouse Resort in Key Largo always steps up as one of our major sponsors. We appreciate them so much. This year we have Sundowners, the Sundowners restaurant and bar, as one of our major sponsors, and of course our partners at the weekly newspaper always take such great good care of us, and I can’t not mention the Key West International Airport, who actually sponsors the fireworks throughout the Florida Keys on July 4.”
The July 4 fireworks will be a huge event. It will begin with the parade starting at 10am, the Freedom Fest picnic at Key Largo Community Park at 11am.
Youngberg said, “We’re calling it the 250/50. 50 years of the parade, I think most people know how that works. We do stage it at Anthony’s Women’s Clothing Store. We are so thankful to them for providing the space. There aren’t a lot of places that you can stage that many cars and floats to get going for the parade, so it takes off from there and goes north to Laguna Avenue, which is just past the Waldorf shopping plaza, there between them and the Holiday Inn, and then we’ll circle back around into the Key Largo Community Park, so people line up, of course, all up and down the highway, everyone has their super soakers and their water balloons and things like that. So, it has become quite the wet parade. So, one little warning that we give to anyone who is going to be driving in the parade, you will get wet, so be prepared. And it has gotten to where some of our floats are actually giving it back to the spectators, notice last year we had one of our floats, actually had a water hose on their float, hosing down the people watching the parade. It’s usually so hot on the 4th of July, it feels good to get wet. We will have our VIP tent this year. We’re moving it, doing things a little different. We will be at the Reef Ocean Exploration Center, the new building that has been built there in the median, just north of Anthony’s clothing store. They’re providing us the space to set up the VIP tent, partly because the parade has become quite a wet event, and we had found with our judges at the end of the parade, some of the floats didn’t look quite so good by the time they got to the end, so we will have our VIP tent there more at the beginning of the route, so that the judges can get a good view of the floats in their finery and be a little more fair judging. So we’re thankful to Reef for providing that space for us.”
Registration is still open for the parade.
Youngberg said, “I think last year we had about 80 floats, I think that was the biggest parade on record, and we’re hoping to surpass that this year, being again being the 250/50. We really want it to be a big parade, and we really want people to decorate and go out with the patriotism. The theme of this year’s parade is just patriotic, so heavy on the red, white, and blue, and let’s celebrate freedom and our country. But then we will go right into the Key Largo Community Park, that will be starting around 11, as the parade ends, we want people to come in there. The Key Largo Rotary is going to be serving the hot dogs, so we will have free hot dogs for the kids this year. So we’re very excited to offer that again, and then we have some great food vendors, lots of shopping vendors, a lot of our nonprofit vendors are going to be setting up to give, of course, information about their mission, that they’re going to be providing games and activities for kids, that we will have a large kids zone, we’ll have a couple of bounce houses, the Super Soaker Corral will be back this year, so we’ll have lots of water apparatuses for the kids to have some fun with that, but keeping them a little contained, so they’re not getting people who don’t want to get soaked.
The Freedom Family Picnic will begin at 11.
Youngberg said, “We will probably figure we’ll go till about four. Last year, we had some rain come in early, so it did shut down a little earlier, but the vendors will probably be there and serving till about 4o’clock So we hope people will come and hang out for the day and enjoy the festivities there, and then, of course, maybe go home and rest up, and then go out and see the fireworks that night. Black water Sound, so, any of your favorite Bayfront establishments there? Of course, Sundowners again is one of our major sponsors. So, we encourage you to call them and make a reservation and go to Sundowners to watch the fireworks.”
Volunteers are always welcome.
Youngberg said, “If you go on to the events tab on our website, you will see a tab to sign up to volunteer. It does take a lot of volunteers to pull off an event like this, so the more the merrier. So, if you’re interested in helping out, there’s several different ways you can help out at the parade staging. We also could always use volunteers to help cook hot dogs, help run the kids zone, or different things at the picnic.”
Membership in the Chamber continues to grow.
Youngberg said, “If anyone is interested in learning more, or becoming a member, just give us a call at 305-451-1414 or shoot us an email. We would love to talk to you and have you become one of our chamber family. Always stop in and see our beautiful visitor center. We’re very proud of our building up at Mile Marker 106.”
For more information, click here: https://www.keylargochamber.org