Champaign prepares for Independence Day celebrations

A Shriner rides in the Freedom Celebration Parade on Wednesday, July 4, 2007. Wes Anderson

From a parade to fireworks from the No. 1 fireworks company in the world, this year's Fourth of July celebration will have something for everybody.

The Champaign County Freedom Committee, a not-for-profit volunteer group that organizes the main events, will start the day off with their Youth Run and 5K Race-Walk. There is an entry fee of $20 up until the beginning of the race that will cover the costs of the event and provide the organization with some additional revenue.

"It takes about $90,000 to do the race, the parade, the evening show and the fireworks," said Don Wauthier, board president of the Champaign County Freedom Committee. "It just goes to operate the overall event. The actual income after the race is maybe a dollar or two a person."

The Youth Run begins at 10:30 a.m. and its route will circle the University's Assembly Hall, 1800 S. First St., in Champaign. The 5K Race-Walk will start at 11:05 a.m. and will begin on the east side of Assembly Hall on Fourth Street.

"We have several hundred participants," Wauthier said. "So far signed up the youngest participant is 5 years old, the oldest is 97. So we have all ages and all skill levels for the Race-Walk."

Starting a little after 10 a.m., segments of road will be shut down based on where each event will take place and will reopen sometime after 3 p.m., Wauthier said. Road closures will continue on the parade route, which stretches from Lincoln Avenue and Nevada Street in Urbana to the Assembly Hall parking lot, until the it ends.

This year's theme for the parade is "Honoring Our Military Heroes." Wauthier said that the Committee meets each year in January to discuss possible themes as well as possible candidates for Grand Marshall.

"This year the Grand Marshall is Marty Conatser," Wauthier said. "He's a local guy who has been elected this year as the National Commander of the American Legion. He seemed like a logical Grand Marshall, given his national commitment to the American Legion, and so the theme for the parade is honoring our military heroes."

Among nearly 100 floats in the parade, Wauthier said that somewhere between 30 to 40 floats have entered the competition for several different awards the committee offers.

The celebration then continues at Dodds Park in northwest Champaign near Parkland College with two hours of live music from band Tons 'O' Fun.

"They are somewhat of a Chicago cover band," Wauthier said. "They play a lot of things other than Chicago, but I think they started as a Chicago cover band."

The band will hit the stage at 7 p.m. and perform until 9 p.m., at which time there will be a few announcements, the singing of the National Anthem and the retiring of the colors by a color guard.

Immediately after this, the sky will be littered with color as the Melrose Pyrotechnics company will choreograph fireworks to a patriotic soundtrack. The music will be broadcast by 92.5 The Chief, and Wauthier encourages people to bring their radio out to listen to the music.

"They have a weather station with them so that they can adjust how the fireworks fire electronically so that the firework that explodes hits an exact spot in the sky at an exact time to match the music," Wauthier said. "They have a CD that has embedded in it the firing instructions for the fireworks so when it hits a certain note it fires a certain firework."

Melrose Pyrotechnics has won first-place awards over the past years in competitions such as the 8th Shanghai International Music Fireworks Festival and L'International des Feux Loto-Québec, a fireworks competition in Montreal.

"We've had them doing our fireworks for more than 20 years now, and so we're very excited that our guys are truly world class," Wauthier said.

More details about each event are available at the Champaign County Freedom Committee's Web site, located at www.july4th.net.