‘Something spectacular’: Towns to go all out on July 4 for America’s 250th year

A fireworks and drone show. A Sousa-heavy municipal band season. A field of flags, many tagged with handwritten notes for those who served.

In Wheaton, the Fourth of July is not just a day, but a state of the mind, to borrow a line from another holiday movie. Like many suburbs this summer, the city is putting on a bigger and brighter celebration of American independence — 250 years of it. And it’s not confined to the weekend of July 4.

The municipal band has issued a call for piccolo players to rally around “The Stars and Stripes Forever” in August. Together with a smaller array of 26 historical flags, 2,000 will be flying in perfectly straight rows in Seven Gables Park, starting at the end of this month.

“Memorial Day, you remember. Veterans Day, you honor. Fourth of July, you celebrate. But we do a little bit of all three at the Field of Honor,” said Rudy Keller, the retired high school principal behind the flag display.

America’s 250th birthday has suburbs unfurling all things red, white and blue. New downtown murals will be unveiled, and time capsules filled. Some towns are shelling out more for fireworks, and proudly so.

“We'll have the biggest Fourth of July fireworks we've ever had. It'll put to shame almost everyone else out there,” Elk Grove Village Mayor Craig Johnson said.

The ‘rockets’ red glare’

Fireworks displays now involve a high degree of artistry, with patriotic symbols appearing in the night sky through the use of drones.

That includes “the Statue of Liberty with big brocades, big golden willows, breaking over the top of her and raining down,” said Zack James, president of Chicago Drone Light Shows.

The Wheaton Park District will usher in the Fourth with a $100,000 fireworks and drone show, or $50,000 for fireworks and $50,000 for drones, on Friday, July 3. The devices fly up to 400 feet.

“I make sure it is something spectacular,” said James, who designs the dual production with vendor Mad Bomber Fireworks.

“Across the board, everyone’s saying let’s make this a pretty awesome Fourth of July,” James said.

Lombard’s village board hired Mad Bomber for a $71,000 fireworks display. That’s approximately $25,000 more than in previous years and includes an add-on grand opening and encore finale of red, white and blue fireworks in recognition of the nation’s semiquincentennial. The village pays for fireworks with hotel-motel tax revenue and does not use property tax dollars.

It’s on the Fourth, and the setting — Madison Meadow — is “beautiful,” Village Manager Scott Niehaus said.

Elk Grove Village will kick off a concert series with country music star Jake Owen, followed by fireworks over Rotary Green. And it’s all free.

“This gives people a chance to come out and forget their problems … and especially this year, celebrate the greatest country ever founded, and have a good time at the same point,” Johnson said.

Less than two weeks later, Foreigner will play a concert for the town’s 70th year, capped off by — what else? — fireworks.

Special tributes

Elk Grove’s mayor has led the charge — and a private fundraising effort — to restore a historic cemetery in honor of the national and village birthday. It will be rededicated the morning of the Fourth.

“The reason that's special is in all of Cook County, including all the city of Chicago, there's only two documented burials of Revolutionary War veterans … and both are in the Elk Grove Cemetery,” Johnson said.

The small cemetery lacked a flagpole. But Old Glory, the version with a circle of stars, will be raised on Independence Day.

“We're really going to pay tribute to those people that truly started this area and made Elk Grove Village what it is today,” Johnson said.

Vernon Hills pays tribute to village residents who currently or previously served in the military with boulevard banners featuring their image, name, rank, branch and combat deployment.

The program is currently up to about 80 banners, displayed from Memorial Day to Veterans Day throughout the village, particularly along the Fourth of July parade route in the Deerpath neighborhood, Village Manager Kevin Timony said. The banners are accompanied by America 250 flags.

“We all live in a great place here in Vernon Hills,” Mayor Thom Koch said after a presentation of this year’s class of honorees. “It wouldn’t be that way without the sacrifice of servicemen.”

Strike up the band

The brass and percussion sections of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra promise a “thunderous performance” at Citizens Park amphitheater in Barrington the evening of July 1. The Barrington Lions Club will cook up its Brat Tent Festival from July 1 to 4. The Barrington All-Star Brass Quintet will perform from the stately porch of Barrington’s own White House before the Independence Day parade.

“Barrington is a very patriotic town, and really the highlight of our event season any year is our Fourth of July parade,” said Clancy Potts, the village’s events manager.

Free entry is being offered to nonprofits that roll out parade floats. The Wheaton Park District is also drumming up participation in the Fourth of July parade with new, lower rates for community and neighborhood groups.

There’s even merch: commemorative T-shirts and hats bearing the City of Wheaton America 250 logo designed by student artist Asher Boriss (the city does not receive any profit from the sale of apparel).

Mayor Phil Suess championed a sweet idea: an ice cream social. The city, in conjunction with Kilwins and Kimmer’s Ice Cream, will provide 1,776 scoops during the municipal band concert July 9.

The price of freedom

The city also has made an effort to mark the 250th with “things that are going to be lasting,” Suess said.

So there’s a newly planted “Liberty Tree” outside city hall. Both Wheaton and Glen Ellyn have sponsored new murals depicting significant landmarks.

“People appreciate freedom, they appreciate liberty, and they appreciate self-determination,” Suess said.

Keller certainly does. He reads the dedication tags attached to the flags, planted by volunteers in the Wheaton park. One last year bore the name of First Lt. Urban Richter, along with, “B-29 Rush order shot down over Sea of Japan.”

“There’s so many that just share the meaning of love and their loss and their pride and honor of that individual,” said Keller, whose father, also named Rudy, served in the Navy during World War II.

Medal of Honor recipient Allen Lynch will give a keynote speech as part of opening ceremonies for the Field of Honor.

Disregarding “his safety in the face of withering hostile fire, he crossed 70 meters of exposed terrain five times to carry his wounded comrades to a more secure area,” reads only a snippet of the citation for his medal, the nation’s highest military award, earned in Vietnam.

All told, 2,026 flags will be posted.

“It’s a symbol of our country, of what we stand for,” Keller said, “and the thousands upon thousands of servicemen and servicewomen who have given up their lives so we can do these types of events.”