It’s the Fourth of July which means fireworks will light up the sky, as well as your neighbor’s driveway.
One fireworks tent in Blue Springs makes this tradition a little more meaningful. The proceeds from the fireworks you buy here will benefit a charity or civic organization.
41 Action News stopped by the Committee for Youth Development tent to find out how things were going.
The #FourthofJuly is off to a great start @ Committee for Youth Development in Blue Springs #fireworks #July4th #USA pic.twitter.com/PEfcU2NHF6
— Belinda Post (@Belinda_Post) July 4, 2016
The tent is 100 percent staffed by volunteers, and all the money goes to help youth programs like Boy Scouts in Jackson County.
Some kids even volunteer their time.
“They'll come here and sign up for a four-hour shift but then be calling mom up and saying, ‘Can I stay ‘til 10 p.m.?,’" said David Gordon, who has worked the tent the past 22 years. “It helps for now and what we will we do this year. But, we're setting some aside for the future when times are tough. When there's kids who can't afford going to camp."
Gordon said their tent has a wide variety of fireworks and sometimes they sell to people year after year.
That’s something Orion Radford, a 5-year volunteer, notices as well. In fact he said his favorite person to sell to is a man who buys “The Godfather” year after year.
Some of the staff explained that although they’ve been open since the first, the rain has been a problem. They expect the fourth to have the largest turnout ever.
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Belinda Post can be reached at belinda.post@kshb.com.
