On the evening of the Fourth of July, the sky above Langley’s football field is filled with that most thrilling and colorful annual ritual – fireworks.
Just the anticipation alone, not to mention festivities themselves, makes this night special for kids of all ages.
The McLean Community Center hosts a fireworks display on Langley’s football field where families from the McLean area can watch the show from the stadium every year on the Fourth of July.
The event has had as many as 10,000 guests, and has evolved to become a huge success for the Community Center.
The turf initiative is accelerating and becoming increasingly feasible as a result of benefits and fundraisers.
Unfortunately, this may mean that the McLean Community Center will not be able to continue to use Langley for its fireworks display.
Many students who have previously attended the event are troubled by this fact, saying they can’t imagine the holiday without it.
Sophomore Ben Gray’s point-of-view on the matter sums it up for many students: “It has been a tradition for too long to let it go.”
The turf predicament is due to construction that will be held directly after the spring sports season. In addition, the flammability of the artificial turf worries Langley’s administration and the community center’s officials.
The Executive Director of McLean Community Center, George Sachs, said “we understand there are other construction projects that may make the current space unsuitable for this type of event.”
Adversity has bred creative responses from the community and new ideas have surfaced as a result of the unfortunate situation.
Christy Meyers, Langley Representative for the McLean Community Center said, “The MCC was thinking about starting another 4th of July tradition, such as a parade through downtown or even a concert in the park.”
It goes without saying that not having fireworks on the Fourth of July could make Independence Day hardly a celebration. But with new ideas exploding, this Fourth of July could turn into something even more spectacular.