No question about it, Wrangell loves its Fourth of July celebration. Residents, families and visitors all gather downtown to watch and participate in the games and races, enjoy the food and, hopefully, some summer sunshine, though that is the least predictable of the festivities.
Putting on the days of the Fourth is not cheap for the chamber of commerce. The celebration totals somewhere around $115,000 for fireworks, event expenses, insurance, prize money, running the royalty fundraising raffle and everything else that everyone enjoys every year.
In the past, raffle ticket sales covered much or most of the Fourth of July expenses, but sales have been in decline due to the pandemic shutdown and fewer royalty candidates and their families willing to devote the entire month of June to selling raffle tickets seven days a week.
The chamber, which puts on other events during the year, also feeds its treasury with members’ dues, profits from pull-tab sales and an annual contribution from the borough, which this year is at $27,000. But just as Fourth of July royalty ticket sales are down, so, too, are pull-tab revenues and chamber memberships.
Which brings us back to the Fourth. Yes, it takes volunteers, but it also takes money, which the chamber does not have. The nonprofit organization has a plan: Ask the borough for funding, which means less money for some other public needs; cut expenses, which means fewer services provided by the chamber; maybe raise membership dues, which could result in fewer members joining up; and ask businesses and individuals to pay to sponsor specific Fourth events. It’s just like sports stadiums that sell naming rights, only the signs will be a lot smaller.
For $100, plus the cost of a new pole, you can sponsor the greased-pole event. Sponsoring disc golf will cost $200. The price to get your name on the 3-on-3 basketball tournament is $400. Sponsorship of all the street games is priced at $3,500, plus the cost of eggs for the annual toss.
The chamber was even talking of charging parade entrants $5 each.
None of this will make the chamber popular. What’s been free for years isn’t going to be free forever, and that will be hard for many people and businesses in town to accept.
But the math does not work without more revenues and less spending. The chamber has little choice but to make some very hard decisions, and the community has little choice but to accept that free is just not affordable.
— Wrangell Sentinel
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