Sisters recall fundraising that revived Yorkville’s Fourth of July festivities 70 years ago

With the nation’s 250th birthday next year, this Fourth of July, Yorkville is celebrating an anniversary of its own.

It’s been 70 years since four Yorkville senior Girl Scouts went door to door collecting donations to bring back the Yorkville Independence Day parade and fireworks that have since helped shape the community’s identity over the past seven decades.

Turning back the years, sisters Carol Sheeley and Linda Blake recently reminisced about life in Yorkville in 1955, a community of about only 600 people. Before they chartered every street of the town for donations of 50 cents to a couple bucks at a time, they recalled being inspired to take action by their mother.

When her two daughters lamented the Yorkville Fourth of July parade they remembered as young children had disappeared for several years, Arlene Blake, who moved to Yorkville in 1937, told Carol, 13, and Linda, 16, to take matters into their own hands.

“Mother said if you want something done, you better do it yourselves, don’t complain about it, just do it,” Linda Blake said. “I wonder how proud she would have felt seeing the parade after all these years. The parade now is so huge compared to how it started.”

She hopes people to build more patriotic floats like the neighborhoods and churches did in the past. “Our float, with Chapel on the Green, is honoring the 250th anniversary of Paul Revere’s Ride. Reminding people of what patriotism means is what it’s all about," she said.

“We went door to door with a coffee can, people were so excited to see us, they would throw in what they could, 50 cents, a few dollars.”

—  Linda Blake

Sheeley said after her mother’s inspiration, the two sisters rallied their four-person senior Girl Scout troop for the cause. Their first stop was the Bristol Kendall Fire Protection District, where the sisters’ father was assistant chief.

“We attended one of their meetings and made a speech asking them to contribute and donate their services,” Sheeley said. “We volunteered to collect all the money for the fireworks show.”

With the firefighters agreeing to volunteer, the girls were ready to hit the streets with the wind at their backs like Paul Revere’s horse.

“We went door to door with a coffee can, people were so excited to see us, they would throw in what they could, 50 cents, a few dollars,” Blake said. “For several weeks we would go out every evening until dark, taking different sections of town. When we finished canvassing the whole town, the fire department used the money to buy the fireworks.”

Several of the community’s earlier businesses chipped-in too, some donating up to $20, which would be a couple hundred dollars today.

Over the decades, as the community grew and evolved so did the Independence Day festivities.

Sheeley said for the first two years, Yorkville was on the south side with Bristol on the north, before they merged in 1957. The parade started on the south side of town coming right through the middle. Races were held for the kids and Little Leaguers would play baseball games before the adults took to the baseball diamond. The south side men would play the north side.

Then in the evening, they set off the fireworks they got through fundraising.

The sisters recalled water fights where firemen sprayed water at other competing fire departments out of towns like Sandwich and Newark.

In 1992, the Yorkville Community Band started performing patriotic tunes and marching in the parade. Their performances have become a beloved Yorkville tradition.

From a community of several hundred, the annual Independence Day festivities blossomed into an annual attraction for thousands.

In 2013, the city took over large responsibilities of the festivities, with the parks and recreation department organizing events and hosting the fireworks show.

The Chapel on the Green, with the sisters’ help, has been organizing the parade lineup that streams past the Town Square. Organizations, like the Yorkville Junior Women’s Club, help host the foot races.

Mayor John Purcell said stories about citizens striving to make the community a better place for others is what calling Yorkville home is all about.

“It’s an incredible legacy they helped create,” Purcell said. “It’s grown so much over the years, there’s thousands of people that attend the parade and participate. We even have people come from other towns to our parade. It’s a special Fourth of July tradition that not every town has. There’s still people old enough to remember us not having a parade. Hard work and volunteers changed all of that.”

Blake said she hopes each year’s festivities remind the younger generation of the importance of patriotism.

“Our democracy started as an experiment and still is,” Blake said. “Perhaps this will inspire more people to take an active role in their society to perpetuate this form of government we celebrate. It takes the involvement of all citizens to keep it that way. We all have to be involved, that’s the true meaning of the Fourth of July.”

When asked how quickly they knew what type of legacy they were creating, Sheeley said the first year after the 1955 fireworks show it became evident.

“By the next year, our Girls Scout troop had tripled,” Sheeley said. “Everyone wanted to be a part of it once they saw what we were all capable of accomplishing.”

To learn more about this year’s Independence Day festivities, visit yorkville.il.us/567/Independence-Day-Celebration.