MAHANOY CITY - Fireworks will return to the borough for the Independence Day holiday thanks to an initiative by Mahanoy Area High School students.
The students put together a Schuylkill County Youth Summit project to raise money in order to celebrate the birth of the United States with a fireworks display on July 5.
The students guiding the initiative are seniors Greg Merchlinsky and Tyler Cavenas, juniors Marcus Schmerfeld and Darryl Andreas and sophomores Kimberly Loughlin and Nolan Fegley. High school Principal Thomas Smith is the group's adviser.
"Last year was the first annual county youth summit and the process was that each school district would do a community project. Our community project was a town cleanup for the borough's sesquicentennial and it worked out great," Smith said, adding, "We had about 45 kids and they cleaned up the town in about an hour, which spurred me thinking that we could do more. It made me feel pretty good since I grew up in this town. This is something that we should be doing a lot more in helping out the community."
The success of the cleanup project for Mahanoy City's 150th anniversary got ideas going for what could be done this year.
"As soon as we put the brooms away, I got my leaders here, seniors Tyler and Greg, thinking what we want to do for the second annual community project," Smith said. "We came up with the idea of the fireworks, and then we started thinking what we could do with the fireworks. So we contacted the borough and they were great. They said the borough had a community day the second Saturday in July and would be willing to move it in conjunction with the fireworks and make it a huge event."
Raising funds for the fireworks display has been a year-long effort.
"We've been fundraising all year," Smith said. "We have a student activity account and we had dress-downs and fundraisers that (have) the money going to the fireworks."
According to borough Manager Daniel L. Lynch, Mahanoy City saw and heard the flashes and booms of its last Independence Day fireworks in 2009. The fireworks had been sponsored by the fire department. He said the borough is getting the event set up this year.
"The borough is handling the contract with the vendor," Lynch said. "The cost is $6,000, but if we can raise a bit more, we can spend more for a better show, though $6,000, according to the vendor, does put on a good display."
The fireworks display will be provided by Pyrotecnico Inc., New Castle.
Lynch hopes to get others involved with the holiday event.
"The borough likely will also commit some recreation funds to the project as well as coordinating with Mahanoy Downtown Inc., the school, and any other interested organizations," he said. "We're looking at this (fireworks) as one body of activities on the July 5, so that was also the reason for moving community day."
Thomas said most of the money has been raised.
"Danny Lynch said the minimum would be $6,000, and we're pretty close to hitting that mark," Smith said. "The youth summit has a $500 grant and we wrote a grant proposal. We would have to match that $500. We're thinking we have a good shot at getting that."
The students are also planning other activities for community day.
"The kids got really excited with the fireworks and started brainstorming what they could do during the day," Smith said. "We have about 10 activities after working on the list for two months. We're trying to make this as big as possible."
Smith said he hopes that the fireworks can be an annual project for the school district.
Merchlinsky said that the enthusiasm and pride felt in Mahanoy City during the sesquicentennial was an amazing thing and it would be great to find ways to keep it going.
"Our town was more upbeat than it ever was before," Merchlinsky said. "There were so many people in town walking around and we wanted to bring that back. We figured that since it has been so long that we had fireworks, why not bring back fireworks and have a community day based with the fireworks. What we want to do is have a day just as big as that sesquicentennial."
Cavenas said the last day of the 150th anniversary celebration also had a positive effect on him in keeping the pride going.
"Greg and I hung out that whole day and saw all the people around and we agreed that we could do it every year and get everybody involved and have a whole day of activities," Cavenas said.
The students will be canvassing the town for donations in the near future. Mahanoy City Borough Council approved the activity at its May 14 meeting.
"We have been getting business donations. It's been tremendous. It really has," Smith said.
"I feel that the whole entire sesquicentennial was eye-opening," Merchlinsky said. "People realized that this town isn't just what people think it to be, that we can make big events and have fun. We just want to bring that back and now that everyone sees what we are doing, they want a part in it."