By Amy Batista, Special Writer
Despite some stormy weather, Roosevelt residents celebrated Independence Day in style.
Around 100 people attended the Fourth of July Celebration in Roosevelt, according to officials. The celebration kicked off at 10 a.m. with a pet show followed by a parade at 11 a.m. and a barbecue and a variety of games starting at noon.
”It was a great excuse to get together and visit with people we don’t always get to see over the summer when everyone’s traveling,” said resident Meredith Murray.
The parade route was longer this year than in previous years and started at Roosevelt Public School, proceeded down Pine Drive, moved across Route 571, went down Homestead Lane, turned right onto North Valley Road, made another right on Farm Lane, turned back onto Route 571, went past the school, turned right onto Tamara and went back down Pine Drive to School Lane.
”For the first time in at least 30 years it encompassed both sides of town for a total of 2.21 miles,” said April Suk, organizer. “The last 30 plus years it only went down Tamara to Pine to School Lane. We didn’t do any judging this time around, but we have discussed it for next year for both bike decorations and fire trucks. It was done in years past but it’s been a long time.”
Resident Kate Murphy said it was great seeing the other towns’ fire trucks and ambulances in the parade.”For the first time in 10 years we invited other departments to take part in the parade,” Ms. Suk said, adding that Hightstown Engine Co. No. 1 and Millstone First Aid Squad participated.
Roosevelt has had a Fourth of July parade for the past 55 years.
”From what I’ve been told by my husband and other people who have been here for 30 plus years this used to be a huge deal,” Ms. Suk said. “We used to have fireworks and a beer truck, marching bands, all kinds of different fire departments and organizations, veterans, etc. People would come from out of town and spend the day here.”
She noted that she has only lived in town for 10 years and during that time there hasn’t been much to the parade.
”About 20 years ago, it started to go downhill. First, the guy with the fireworks moved out of town. Then, the beer went away. The parade got smaller and smaller. So when I moved to town it was literally one fire truck, one ambulance and kids on bikes as a 10-minute parade, and the picnic was some hot dogs and hamburgers and that was it,” she said.
This year the fire department wanted to change that.
”We figured we’d start small and work our way back up,” she said. “I don’t know that we’ll ever have our own fireworks or beer again, but it’s a goal we plan on working towards.”
This year, there was a newly formed Roosevelt Volunteer Fourth of July Committee, which consisted entirely of members of the Roosevelt Volunteer Fire Company.
The committee hired a dunk tank to raise funds for next year’s Fourth of July picnic, and the fire company got a DJ to donate his time, planned some games, set up a corn hole tournament for adults, and held a 50/50, she said.
”We had been watching the weather all week, and to be honest it was almost cancelled,” she said. “I was travelling for business most of the week and was sitting in a hotel room in Minneapolis having heart palpitations watching this hurricane move up the East Coast.”
She continued, “Thanks to a super generous donation of bounce houses by Bounce U in West Windsor, and because one of our members, Sam Lopez, is certified to run the bounce house we were able to set up a 60-foot inflatable obstacle course in the school gym, move some of our games inside, set up some tents and move forward with the expectation that it was going to rain.”
”I enjoyed the kids’ games,” said Jim Colleton. “It was nice to see them all having fun.”
Ms. Murphy even took part and volunteered to be dunked.
”The dunk was the highlight for me,” she said. “I asked April if I could get in it. I started talking smack to everyone.”
Her daughter, Rachel’s, 6, favorite part was of course dunking her mom in the dunk tank and playing in the bounce obstacle course with friends while her older daughter Lily, 13, enjoyed watching the parade with all the friendly people.
Participants paid $5 to play all three games and had chances to win various grand prizes. All of the prizes were donated, with the largest donation coming from Bar S Foods, which sent a Visa gift card that covered the cost of all of their hot dogs and buns.
”The kids loved the games at the school in the afternoon,” Ms. Murray said. “The weather didn’t exactly cooperate, but that didn’t seem to dampen anyone’s spirits.”
All proceeds from the dunk tank will go toward next year’s picnic, Ms. Suk said.
”Hopefully, we get the dunk tank again and maybe a petting zoo or ride or in some way one-up this year,” she said. “All proceeds from the games and 50/50 go towards purchasing a fire truck to replace the 1970 Mack Fire Engine, which is the only apparatus that Roosevelt currently has.”
The department is trying to raise $30,000 to purchase Wall Township’s 1993 KME Fire Engine.
”The ultimate goal is to purchase a new truck, and then donate our 1970 Mack back to Freehold to refurbish and use as an antique parade engine, as they are the ones that donated it to us back in 1996,” she said.
Ms. Murray noted how great of a job the fire company did organizing the Fourth of July Celebration this year.
”The fire company has done a great job of building this event back to what it used to be many years ago,” Ms. Murray said. “Roosevelt is a place of great community, but it’s easy to lose that when people are so busy. Shannon and Dan Archer, April and Chris Suk, and everyone involved have worked really hard to get a lot of people to come out and remember why this little town is so special.
”Both of my kids were in the parade, one on a scooter with friends and the other riding in the fire chief’s truck with his daughter (her friend),” she said. “They’ve both been in the Hightstown Memorial Day parade in years past with their Girl Scout troops, but this is nice because they know just about everyone in this parade as well as almost everyone who is out watching. It was also nice that the Hightstown and Millstone fire departments came out to be in the parade too.
”At the end of the day, we ended up with a decent amount of food leftover, so Chief Archer and Captain Suk decided to pack it all up and bring it over to Powell Court and donate it to the families who lost their homes in the fire on Wednesday,” Ms. Suk said. “We couldn’t respond the day of the fire, so this allowed us to at least help in some capacity.”
She noted that the fire company has a “phenomenal team.”
”It wouldn’t have been at all possible without the members of our department essentially giving up their Fourth of July to pull this off,” she said. “Considering half of our members are between the ages of 18 to 21, that’s pretty large ask.
She noted she felt “guilty” when people came up to her to tell her what a good job she did.
”I’m just the project manager, the guys did all of the work the day of, they deserve the credit,” she said.
