{"id":100677,"date":"2023-07-02T21:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-03T05:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/celebrating-the-freedom-to-begin-fourth-festivities-early\/"},"modified":"2023-07-02T21:30:00","modified_gmt":"2023-07-03T05:30:00","slug":"celebrating-the-freedom-to-begin-fourth-festivities-early","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/celebrating-the-freedom-to-begin-fourth-festivities-early\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating the freedom to begin Fourth festivities early"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t

In the spirit of Juneau’s tradition of getting an early start on Fourth of July celebrations, hundreds of people gathered at Savikko Park for a community picnic Monday evening before the fireworks show at midnight that marks the beginning of Independence Day.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Attendees indulged in hotdogs, hamburgers and activities — including watermelon-eating contests for various age groups and a sand dollar search for youths.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

\"Douglas<\/a>

Douglas firemen Rych Clime, left, beard and Ray Roberts grill burgers and hot dogs near a shelter at Sandy Beach during a community picnic Monday evening. (Therese Pokorney \/ Juneau Empire)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

In charge of the grill were Rych Clime and Ray Roberts, both retired firemen from the Douglas Fire Department, which supplied the hamburgers and hotdogs. Clime said they ordered approximately 600-800 hamburgers and hotdogs for the picnic.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“You get out here and see people you haven’t seen in a while,” Clime said. “This is one of the best events in Douglas.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

All participants at the watermelon-eating contest received a silver dollar and winners —- whoever finished their slice first —- received $5. The only rule: no hands allowed. Whoever finished their slice first won.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

\"Child<\/a>

Child pick up sand dollars along Sandy Beach during a community picnic Monday evening. (Therese Pokorney \/ Juneau Empire)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

For the sand dollar search, participants were separated into age groups — 0-4 years old, 5-8 years old and 9-12 years old — and raced in sections on Sandy Beach to pick up as many sand dollars as they could. All participants received a prize and could take home one sand dollar.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“It’s so fun to watch the kids have such a great time — because that’s what it’s all about,” said Maggie Swanson, president of the Douglas 4th of July Committee, who was in charge of coordinating the activities.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Swanson, a committee volunteer for the past 19 years, highlighted the community-oriented nature of the Fourth of July holiday.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“I love the way it brings everyone together — not just folks in Douglas, but all of Juneau,” she said. “It’s nice to see everyone come out and enjoy our independence.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

\"Maggie<\/a>

Maggie Swanson, president of the Douglas Fourth of July committee, gives instructions to youths about to participate in a sand dollar search on Sandy Beach during a community picnic Monday evening. (Therese Pokorney \/ Juneau Empire)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

Watermelon-eating contest winners by age:<\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

2-3 year olds: Steven Littlefield, Neva Reeder and Makai Kosmerl<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

5-6 year olds: Cole Dillon and Callaghn Shauley.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

7 year olds: Hollis DeGuzman<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

8-9 year olds: Bessa Korona<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

10 year olds: Ikahn DeGuzman<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

11 year olds: Elise Kanouse<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

12-13 year olds: Darlene White<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

15-18 year olds: Laihla Jones-Stevenson and Hayden Kuzakin<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Adult: Brooklyn Kanouse<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

• Contact Therese Pokorney at therese.pokorney@juneauempire.com.<\/em><\/p>\n\t\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Watermelon-eating contests, sand dollar search add flavor to beach picnic on eve of Independence Day <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":100678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":9,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4],"tags":[737,896],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-100677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-news","tag-fourth-of-july","tag-july-4"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100677"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=100677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}