Parade and fireworks highlight weekend
Have you brought out your red, white and blue yet? If not, better hurry. The
Fort Myers Beach Fourth of July parade and fireworks display is heading down
Estero Boulevard this weekend. Beginning at the Sea Grape Plaza at 10 a.m.
Saturday, July 4, more than 50 parade entries will coast down the boulevard,
wrapping up at Old San Carlos Boulevard around noon.
Expect to see many of our live and local celebrities in the parade, as well
as handfuls of local charities, groups, businesses and service
organizations, from Turtle Time, the American Legion and the Pink Shell, to
the American Red Cross, Blue Lightning and possibly the U.S. Coast Guard.
Make sure you let your beach-visiting friends and family know the Mantanzas
Sky Bridge will be closed from 9:30 a.m. to about noon to make way for the
floats and parade caravan coming down the way.
An awards ceremony for the parade will be held at the new Surf Club (the old
Waffle House) at noon. Miss Florida, Tampa’s Lees Garcia, will be the Grand
Marshall, and will be followed by Miss Southwest Florida, Miss Fort Myers,
Miss Cape Coral and Miss Naples Teen. All the ladies will make an appearance
and meet-and-greet at the Pink Shell at 2 p.m. that day.
Parking will be very, very limited so taking the trolley is recommended.
Major sponsors of the event include the Surf Club, the Beached Whale, Doc
Ford’s, Charley’s Boathouse, the Pink Shell, and the Beach Observer, and
Saltwater Pro Shop. ‘Friends of the parade’ are Tropics Island Bar and Grill
and Terra Nostra.
Show your spirit by purchasing an official second annual FMB Fourth of July
Parade T-shirt ($10) or tank top ($12). Proceeds of the shirt purchases go
to the Fort Myers Beach Civic Association and local charities.
They’re available at the Beach Bulletin/Beach Observer office, 19260 San
Carlos Blvd., as well as the Beached Whale and other major sponsor sites.
Mind-boggling fireworks at dusk
After all of this red, white and blue patriotic action on the beach in the
morning and early afternoon July 4th, stop by other local establishments and
make your way down to the Times Square area around dusk for the annually
phenomenal fireworks display, organized and hosted by Bill Semmer and his
Fourth of July Fireworks Fund team. They have worked diligently for months
and months prior to this special night, raising funds just for this very
occasion.
“Plans have been going wonderful,” said Joanne Semmer, team member of the fireworks fund committee. “The show will last anywhere from 35 to 40
minutes, depending on weather. (If it looks like rain, we might shoot them
off a little faster).”
Joanne said the almost-hour-long display actually takes about two days to
build on the pier prior to the show, from carrying in sand for placing the
mortar to building the wooden framing for the grand finale and wiring
everything together.
“Bill loves to help with the display, but we work in partnership of Garden
State Fireworks, who has a whole team that comes in,” Joanne said. “They are federally licensed pyrotechs, manufacturing their own fireworks, with $5
million in liability insurance. We’ve used them ever since we’ve been doing
this for 21 years. It’s a good partnership and they’re a good company.
Plus, they have a great safety record.”
For safety purposes, Joanne said they’ve gone from hand-shooting the
fireworks to actually setting them off electronically. The Garden State
Fireworks wires up the displays, all connecting to a large keyboard. That’s
right pyrotechnics have gone digital.
If you’ve been to this team’s amazing shows in the past, don’t think you’ve
seen it all. Bill and his crew make sure they change up the display and the
fireworks year after year, keeping it fresh, new and exciting.
“We like to change the display every year to enhance it; make it better,”
Joanne said.
Expect the show to start as soon as it’s dark enough to kick off the
display -right around 9:15 p.m., Saturday, July 4.
Joanne, on behalf of the fireworks team, is eager to show her thanks to the
Fort Myers Beach community.
“We just want to thank the Fort Myers Beach community for all of their
support in helping us put on this fireworks show, because without them, we
couldn’t do it. It’s their support that makes this possible to all the
people that brought baked goods for our bake sale, to all our volunteers
that come out to help set up, clean up, sell raffle tickets, sell T-shirts
throughout all of our fund-raisers to all those that come to our benefits
and support them I don’t want to leave anyone out thank you all so very
much. It’s only the generosity of the community that we’re able to put on
the fireworks (display) every year.”
Joanne said the fireworks team will have a tent set up right at the foot of
the bridge in the Times Square area, selling annual Fireworks Fund T-shirts
($10 each or XXL for $12); American flags; red, white and blue beads and
potentially more, and will also serve as an information station for passers
by.
“All money from the shirts goes to pay for the fireworks,” she said.
We’ll see you on the beach in your red, white and blue this Fourth of July!
Special trolley service July 4th
LeeTran will operate trolleys only on July 4 Lee County Transit (LeeTran)
will not operate its 18 bus routes on Saturday, July 4 in honor of
Independence Day. It will operate two trolley routes on that day, serving
Fort Myers Beach.
Trolley service from Summerlin Square on the mainland to Bowditch Park at
the north end of the island, will run every 40 minutes starting at 7:00 a.m.
The last trip off the island will drop passengers at Summerlin Square at
11:55 p.m.
Beach trolley service, which travels on Estero Boulevard from Bowditch Park
to Lovers Key State Park, will run every 30 minutes from 6:45 a.m. until the
last stop at Bowditch at 11:40 p.m.
The adult trolley fare is 50 cents per boarding; the discount fare (seniors
65 and up, disabled persons and students with required I.D.) is 25 cents per
boarding. Exact change is required.
On Friday, July 3, all LeeTran routes will operate on their Saturday
schedules.For more information, contact LeeTran Customer Service at 533-8726
(LEE-TRAN).