Community picnic at Al Quaal Recreation Area
ISHPEMING — After the Parades everyone was invited to go check out the community 4th of July Picnic out at Al Quaal Recreation Area in Ishpeming.
The community picnic began at the end of the Ishpeming parade and it is featuring food vendors, an artist tent and even music by JAB which is starting at 6:00 pm. The picnic will also feature other vendors and even some fun things for the whole family.
“Well we are really fortunate to have such a wonderful warm day,” said 4th of July Committee member, Paul Bonetti. “You know today everyone is going to get a little sun burnt and things like that. We will have the pony rides; you know the usual good fun stuff. Of course our baseball game will be going on shortly and we will be bringing back the high school kickball games.”
But some are not celebrating by relaxing… Others are working on raising money for students around the area and putting relaxation time on hold.
The Teal Lake Masonic Lodge came out to help fundraise money for scholarships for students by selling snow-cones.
“We do it for scholarships and we provide scholarships to Ishpeming, Negaunee, Gwinn, Westwood and Republic Michigamme,” said Secretary Treasurer of Teal Lake Masonic Lodge, Alan Nelson. “We do this every year and so far we have raised about $85,000 for scholarships for students around.”
Others came for the celebration, games and even the spectacular fireworks.
“Well I like the 4th of July because there are just a lot of fireworks and you get to play a lot of cool games,” said a young patron, Andrew Richards. “And I am just here for the fireworks and all the fun stuff.”
But one thing is that it’s always a great time to celebrate our independence with friends and family.
“We like the 4th of July because all of the family gets together and we like to get the community involved and bring everyone back out to Al Quaal to have a good time,” said Owner of Moms Organizing Masterpiece, Tania Richards. “We got ten different games and ten different relay races, a three legged race, water balloon races and just a bunch of kid’s activities.”
The festivities will go all day with fireworks at dusk.