Beaver Island Fourth of July celebration, 1983

Summary

Beaver Island’s July 4, 1983 celebration, organized by the Beaver Island Civic Association, combined a “Years Past on Beaver Island” themed parade organized by Kathleen Green, an enlarged evening carnival, a numbered-button raffle with a handmade clock as grand prize, and a separate $5-ticket raffle for a donated town lot. Rain cut the fireworks short, with the remainder saved for Homecoming Weekend. The Civic Association’s October meeting minutes give net proceeds of about $1,000, described as “a first for the Civic.”

History

Fundraising for the 1983 celebration began well before July: the Beaver Island Civic Association’s third annual Spring Fling, an Open Mike Talent Night at the Shamrock on 23 April, drew about fifty people for music by Dan Peck, Joe Moore, Amy Green, Rick Delamater, Jacque LaFreniere, and an accordionist named Keach, with proceeds going, as in prior years, toward the Fourth of July fireworks and carnival. The June Beacon announced the year’s plan: a parade themed “Years Past on Beaver Island,” organized by Kathleen Green; an enlarged carnival moved to a new 6:30-9:00 p.m. slot with $10 table rentals; and a new numbered-button raffle, its buttons distributed by Civic Association members and island businesses, with one of Roy Elsworth’s (also spelled Ellsworth in the source) handmade clocks as grand prize. The same issue’s Civic Association history feature stated that “the Civic was formed around 1954” and that the association had run the Fourth of July celebration “since 1955,” when it consisted of a school-grounds picnic with games followed by fireworks — a founding date that differs from the “1955” the association itself gave for its own founding at its 30th-anniversary dinner two years later (see the hub article and the July 1985 Beacon).

The July issue listed the full button-raffle prize slate — Elsworth’s clock, a fishing reel from Island Sports, gift certificates from Circle M, the Beachcomber, Rafferty’s, and the Shamrock, T-shirts from LaFreniere’s Gift Shop, a T-shirt and cap from McDonough’s, a candlewicking kit from BJ’s, and gas from Martin’s and Gillespie’s — alongside a separate $5-ticket raffle for a Port St. James lot donated by Mort (“Morty”) Brous, also to be drawn 4 July. Its calendar grid set the carnival for 6:30 p.m. and fireworks for 10 p.m. that day.

The August Beacon reported the celebration as it happened. The parade, still organized by Green, ran with elaborate floats including a miniature “American Girl” crewed by youngsters, Little League ball teams, and horses, but no fire trucks — the department was fighting a structure fire at Barney’s Lake at parade time — and passed the assembled crowd twice, once in each direction. The carnival ran “bigger & better,” with new games at the new time, staffed by unnamed “numerous people who ran the booths.” Fireworks “started out beautifully” but only about half were fired before rain stopped them; the remainder was held back for Homecoming Weekend. The button raffle’s winners were named in full: Jim Fedewa, Betsy Borre, Jennifer Vyse, and Bill Burns ($5 Rafferty’s certificates); Dawn Mooney (candlewicking kit); Courtney Moore (fishing reel); Pat Rowley (ten gallons of gas from Gillespie’s); Dean Cady (McDonough’s T-shirt and hat); Mary Delamater and “Macken’s” (LaFreniere’s T-shirts); Ken Burlington ($20 Circle M certificate); Nancy Sommer (ten gallons of gas from Martin’s); Elizabeth Martin ($25 Shamrock certificate); and Brian Spears, who won Elsworth’s clock. Joddy Crosswhite won the Port St. James lot; that raffle alone raised $1,000, credited substantially to Ed Wojan for door-to-door ticket sales and for arranging the property transfer. The Civic Association’s fall meeting on 15 September reviewed the summer’s activities and recorded Fourth of July net proceeds of “about $1,000.00 which is a first for the Civic.”

Significance

The 1983 celebration marks a financial turning point the Civic Association itself named in its own minutes: net proceeds of roughly $1,000 were recorded as a first for the organization, achieved through an enlarged carnival, a themed parade, and two concurrent raffles rather than the school-grounds picnic the association’s own history feature says the celebration began as in 1955. The event depended on in-kind support from a run of island businesses — Circle M, the Beachcomber, Rafferty’s, the Shamrock, LaFreniere’s, McDonough’s, BJ’s, Martin’s, and Gillespie’s — that supplied raffle prizes, and on a donated town lot from Mort Brous sold through door-to-door tickets, showing the celebration’s dependence on local commercial and individual patronage rather than township funding.

Evidence and limits

This is a well-documented year by this series’ standards: an announcement, a completed-event report naming winners, and a fall financial recap all survive. It is still a set of newspaper accounts, not an audited financial statement; the booth volunteers are thanked collectively but not named. No specific venue is given for the carnival, parade route, or raffle drawing beyond “the harbor” area implied by the fire-truck detail, so spatial_status is approximate.

Added 3 August 2026 · revised 4 August 2026. Recent changes