Bocce Club celebration provides patriotic fun

Kids marched down Hartwell Lane with bells on at last year’s Bocce Club Fourth of July event.

by AMY BRISSON

What do you get when you add 2,000 hotdogs, a hoard of tricycles and a magician? Fun!

It’s the Bocce Club’s annual Fourth of July celebration, which kicks off with the national anthem just before 9 a.m. at Germantown Avenue and Hartwell Lane. There will be the traditional float and bicycle parade, magic show, pony rides, free lunch and lots of other fun for kids and their parents.

The event will begin with a poem read by “Patriot Poet” Tom Woodruff, who has conducted the opening of the ceremony for 14 years, wearing an American flag T-shirt for the occasion. Last year, Woodruff read a poem about the importance of knowing and taking pride in the nation’s history.

The poem is followed by the much-anticipated bike parade, which features children ages 3 to 12 showing off their patriotically decorated bikes. Cash prizes are awarded to three children with the most impressively decked-out bikes in each of six categories: training wheels, tricycle, float, 20-inch bike, 24 inch bike, and 26 inch bike. One of last year’s winners in the training wheels competition was Casey Lorimer, who dressed up as Paul Revere, complete with a plush “horse” bike.

But prizes aren’t only for the finalists: all children receive free T-shirts and all participants are eligible for a drawing to win a new bicycle, donated by Kilian’s Hardware. One boy and one girl are selected to win the bike at the end of the event. After the parade, kids can join in a candy hunt, sack races and a “shoe race” behind the Water Tower Recreation Center.

After the contests and parade comes lunch at 11:30 a.m., served by the hardworking Bocce Club volunteers. Over 2,000 hotdogs, sodas and ice creams will be provided free to participants and their families.

Following lunch is the “highlight of the whole thing,” according to event committee member Timothy Alexander: the magic show. Kids and their parents can watch a professional magician perform tricks from bleachers set up around the Water Tower. According to committee member Frank Hendrie, this year will feature a special show by a “balloon magician,” who will perform tricks with balloons and plenty of audience participation.

This is the 89th year of the event, originally sponsored by Mr. Airy-Chestnut Hill Businessmen’s Association. When that organization folded, the celebration was taken over by the members of the Bocce Club. The club pays for the festivities, which costs approximately $13,000, by soliciting contributions from businesses and residents in the community and by printing an ad book. They also hold a raffle, for which tickets can be purchased during the celebration. Prizes are picked at the end of the event, around 1 p.m., and any left over money is saved in a bank account for next year’s Independence Day.