{"id":226443,"date":"2019-06-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-29T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/fireworks-a-go-despite-funding-shortfall\/"},"modified":"2019-06-29T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-29T07:00:00","slug":"fireworks-a-go-despite-funding-shortfall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/fireworks-a-go-despite-funding-shortfall\/","title":{"rendered":"Fireworks a go despite funding shortfall"},"content":{"rendered":"

Por JEFF CLEMETSON | Mensajero de La Mesa<\/p>\n

Since the July Fourth fireworks display and music festival at Lake Murray was brought back in 2017 after a six-year hiatus, thousands of residents of the Navajo neighborhoods, La Mesa and visitors from all over San Diego County have enjoyed the event and its high-quality family fun and entertainment. This year\u2019s festival promises to deliver much of the same. However, organizers are worried about a lack of money raised to seed next year\u2019s event and are calling on the community to step up and donate what they can to ensure the local celebration of our nation\u2019s birthday continues into the future.<\/p>\n

According to the Lake Murray Fireworks and MusicFest GoFundMe page, the group has raised $60,000 of its $85,000 goal, with much of those funds coming from sponsors such as title sponsor Stormberg Orthodontics.<\/p>\n

Despite the $25,000 shortfall, the show will go on.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now it\u2019s happening,\u201d said Rob Hotz, a volunteer organizer of the fireworks festival. \u201cWe have enough to pull this year off. We have dipped into the majority of our savings from previous years in order to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

What that means is that there will be no seed money for next year\u2019s event. Seed money is required for the necessary permits and fees, and for the vendors that need deposits several months in advance to provide fencing, portable restrooms, the concert stage and even the firework display itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey need the money well before the core of our fundraising effort for that year, so dipping into our savings this year as much as we have does put a damper on what we could pull off next year, or if we can pull it off next year or not,\u201d Hotz said.<\/p>\n

The fundraising strategy for the fireworks event is two tiered \u2014 get corporate sponsorships and also raise money from residents who attend the event through the group\u2019s GoFundMe page and a door-to-door campaign where residents are left an envelope to send in checks.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth have been down this year for one reason or another,\u201d Hotz said, but added that sponsorships have picked up in the last couple weeks. \u201cOn the resident side, it\u2019s hard to raise money too early from the community because they are not thinking about the Fourth of July in January.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Fireworks<\/a>
A view of the 2018 Lake Murray Fireworks crowd. Festival organizers are hoping people attending this year will donate to ensure the event continues in 2020. (Photo by Brett Alan, brettalanphotography.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This year, the door-to-door fundraising only received donations from a few hundred families out of many thousands of envelopes that were delivered to homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s more than 300 families that go to the fireworks every year so we have a huge population that is not donating and they come to the fireworks. I don\u2019t know why that is,\u201d Hotz said. \u201cTo me, that\u2019s a giant frustration. If everyone who went to the fireworks just donated a couple bucks, we\u2019d be there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Festival organizers always have a booth at the event with a jar to collect donations and typically raise around $6,000 during the festival, Hotz said, but it is not something he and the other volunteers prefer to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of us as a committee have made a very concerted effort to say when the Fourth of July event is here, we\u2019re here to enjoy the Fourth of July,\u201d Hotz said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to pound people over the head and beg for money on the Fourth of July, that\u2019s not what the day is about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Festival organizers prefer that people who plan on attending the festival make a donation in advance at the GoFundMe page or by sending in a check in the envelopes they received on their doorstep. The suggested donation is $50 per household but anything people can give is appreciated, Hotz said. To donate, go to bit.ly\/2Ufr4MR<\/a>. For more information about the event, visit lagomurrayfireworks.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In addition to funding for the July 4 event, the festival organizers are also in need of volunteers on July 5 to help make sure the park and surrounding neighborhoods are clean. The cleanup begins at 8 a.m. and will finish around noon. Coffee, water and donuts are provided and it is an excellent chance for students to get community service hours logged. People interested in volunteering can sign up at signup.com\/go\/MEEFODa<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Lake Murray Fireworks and MusicFest runs 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on the Fourth of July. Food vendors participating in this year\u2019s event include: Corbin\u2019s Q, Dang Brother Pizza, Windmill Farms, Primo\u2019s Mexican, Finest City Kettlecorn, Doggos Gus and Rita\u2019s Italian Ice. A variety of children\u2019s activities will be held throughout the day including a scavenger hunt.<\/p>\n

The festival draws a rotating crowd of more than 3,000 people, while the 9 p.m. fireworks show can be seen by an estimated 100,000 people throughout La Mesa and San Diego\u2019s Navajo neighborhoods of Grantville, Allied Gardens, Del Cerro, and San Carlos. The music stage is located at Lake Murray Community Park, 7001 Murray Park Drive, in San Carlos.<\/p>\n

Lake Murray Fireworks and MusicFest schedule:<\/h3>\n

11 a.m.\u2013noon: TBA<\/p>\n

12:30\u2013 2 p.m.: Frankie T & The Triple Bee (blues)<\/p>\n

2:30\u20134 p.m.: Big Time Operator (18-piece big band)<\/p>\n

4:30\u2013 6 p.m. (Bam Bam (Elvis\/British\/rockabilly)<\/p>\n

6:30\u20139 p.m.: Republic of Music<\/p>\n

9 p.m.: \u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner\u201d and fireworks display<\/p>\n

- Comun\u00edquese con Jeff Clemetson en jeff@sdnews.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By JEFF CLEMETSON |\u00a0La Mesa Courier Since the July Fourth fireworks display and music festival at Lake Murray was brought back in 2017 after a six-year hiatus, thousands of residents of the Navajo neighborhoods, La Mesa and visitors from all over San Diego County have enjoyed the event and its high-quality family fun and entertainment. […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":778,"featured_media":226444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11548","_seopress_titles_title":"Fireworks a go despite funding shortfall","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11548,11551,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-226443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-mesa-courier","category-news","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/778"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}