Steve Miller, executive director of the Lower Keys Chamber of Commerce and member of the Lower Keys Rotary Club, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about the Fourth of July.
The Rotary Club is sponsoring the celebration in Big Pine happening tonight.
Miller said, “Tonight is our big Independence Day celebration. It’s going to be huge. It all starts at five o’clock. Gates will open. Then I want to remind everybody, please, no coolers. You cannot bring a cooler into the event tonight. We’re going to have great music and we’re also going to have Island Dance. The kids are going come out and do a dance for us. We’re also going to have a demonstration from a boxing club. There will be lots of games for the kids to play and, of course, fireworks. We’re going to have a big show too. So anytime you want to come out after five, you’re pretty much welcome. The fireworks usually go off somewhere around 9:15, somewhere in there.”
The Rotary Club works really hard all year long to make this possible and make it happen.
Miller said, “I think I may have told you the story of why we do this on the third of July. Years ago, we had a fireworks show, and the fireworks were shot off land. Well, when we did that, embers from the fireworks came down on some people, and there was a bad taste. At any rate, the fireworks guy got very upset with us and the next year, when we went to book him, he’s like, no, I’m not coming back there. So we had to find another fireworks company and we hunted with everybody, and we finally found somebody. He said, yeah, I can come, but I can’t do it on the Fourth. I could do it on the third. So we did it on the third, and we noticed that when we did it on the third, we had a much bigger crowd. So we were like, well, let’s try it again on the third again next year and see what happens. The crowd almost doubled, and it’s gotten bigger and bigger every year because people can go to Marathon or Key West on the Fourth, they have very, very great shows, but now they can come and see ours on the third. And what’s really advantageous for us is the fact that it being on the third, well, the fourth is a holiday, so people could come to our show and then be able to sleep in the next day.”
The Key West Airport helped a lot.
Miller said, “They are a major sponsor every year, and they really, really help make it possible the fact of how large the show is, so we want to throw out a special thank you to them.”
Volunteers are always needed.
Miller said, “I’d like to throw a quick shameless plug in here for the Rotary because, I mean, I’m approached from time to time saying, oh, man, you do some really great stuff. Well, you do some really great stuff too, man, seriously. If you’re into things like the fireworks, and we do the kids bridge fishing tournament. We hang the Christmas lights up and down the highway. We have a fun haunted house every year. These are really, really cool projects, and we, quite frankly, could use some help. I mean, some of our club members are getting kind of older. Gracious, I turned 67. I need some younger people to come in. We’d love to see some of those young people in our club. We only meet twice a month for a lunch and it’s really, really great. I mean, it’s the only $10 lunch, you’re going to find. We do have a really, really good time. The saying that I kind of made up was you may not be able to change the world, but you can truly make a difference in where you live. Seriously, come on out and join us. We would love to have you as a member. Check things out about the club by simply going on to Facebook and look up the Lower Keys Rotary.”
The club meets the first and third Fridays of the month at noon.
Miller said, “You can just come to a meeting. You can get a hold of anyone of us and you can also instant message us right there on Facebook.”
For more information, click here: https://www.lowerkeysrotary.org/