June 9, 2023 By Carol Britton Meyer
While there will be no fireworks lighting up the sky this year in Hingham, plans are underway by an informal group of volunteers to ensure the continuation of a Hingham Harbor Fourth of July celebration in the future.
As planned — and at the conclusion of the 2022 Harbor Celebration Day event — the Hingham Lions Club passed the fireworks hosting torch to a group of resident volunteers who had worked alongside the Club for a couple of years to make this annual event happen in the usual spectacular fashion.
Although they will no longer serve as the hosting organization due to an aging membership unable to continue organizing the event, the Lions have indicated that they are more than willing to help with fireworks display logistics in the future. There were no fireworks in 2019 and none in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID.
“The Lions Club is honored to have put on this signature event for 26 of the past 29 years — 25 consecutively — and we encouraged resident volunteers to come together to ensure this tradition would continue as a community event,” Lions Club President Mark Casale told the Hingham Anchor. “The Fourth of July tradition has been special to generations of Hingham residents over the years — including the parade and surrounding activities such as the fireworks — and we are delighted to have it continue.”
The group of “at this time loosely organized volunteers interested in helping the town to continue its annual fireworks met several times during 2022 and 2023 to explore the feasibility of raising the approximately $60,000 it cost to put on the 2022 display,” Harbor Development Committee Chair Marco Boer told the Hingham Anchor.
“[Last year] it was deemed no longer possible to host the fireworks on July 4 due to the endangered bird nesting season on Button Island from which the fireworks have traditionally been launched,” he said. “This is why the 2022 event was moved to September’s inaugural Harbor Celebration Day (past the endangered bird nesting season) using funds previously raised by the Lions. About half of those overall funds came from a significant one-time donor [Showcase Cinemas].”
When exploring whether funds could be raised for fireworks in 2023, the group found that many local businesses who have been the major contributors to the fireworks fundraising effort in the past have been struggling through an inflationary period in 2022/2023.
“It was deemed impractical to raise the funds for what is a non-capital charitable event,” Boer explained. “Since the town spends very little of taxpayers’ money on celebrations, it was then determined that it would serve our town’s best interests to investigate options for a permanent endowment — one that would serve not just the fireworks, but the harbor front where the fireworks have historically been held in general.”
Exploring the option of raising funds for an endowment is in the very early stages. In the meantime, the Lions Club has indicated that they have a donation set aside to kick off a Harborworks fundraising campaign.
“Given the time commitment to develop the concept of an endowment, there will be no fireworks in 2023,” Boer said.
He also noted that there has been great interest in moving to alternatives to fireworks for environmental and timing reasons. This includes the possibility of a drone show, which has had great success in towns such as Nantucket.
“This would also likely enable the event to be moved back to July 4, since it could be launched far away from the endangered nesting birds,” Boer said. “In short, there are lots of ideas, but we have to put a funding structure in place to make the celebration less dependent upon fluctuations in the economy and a majority dependency on annual fundraising.”
Once it has been determined whether the development of an endowment is feasible, a formal group will be formed to support the Hingham Harbor celebration.