AMESBURY — The town's annual celebration is ready to start tomorrow, and organizers say they need donations to help fund popular events like the July 4 fireworks display.
Amesbury Days is a 10-day festival featuring a wide variety of events, and this year it will offer several new entries. A complete schedule is available at amesburydays.org.
According to Amesbury Days organizer Kate Broughton, the fireworks display, expected to cost $14,000, is a major expense that needs more donations. The fireworks display draws thousands of people annually to Woodsom Farm on Lions Mouth Road.
"This is a pretty standard price for a fireworks display," she said. "This is a very good display."
The Amesbury Days committee is launching a "Buck Up" campaign this week to generate donations.
The website will have revolving "Burma Shave-type" poems, reminding people that donations in any amount are needed. Residents are asked to submit their own "couplets," which will be published, with or without attribution at the author's request, during the period that Amesbury Days is taking place.
Broughton said she hopes to generate a lot of funny, witty and effective submissions, and will post as many as are received.
Also, volunteers will be positioned at various sites at Woodsom Farm the night of the fireworks, and at the Town Park the evening of Amesbury Days' final event, The Brew Concert on July 9 at the Town Park, in hopes of collecting contributions.
The Amesbury Days committee has partnered with volunteers from the Lake Attitash Association to help in the collection effort on July 4 and 9. A quarter of the funds collected at both events will go toward the fight against invasive milfoil weeds that are threatening to take over the lake, and the effort to stem the growth of cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, that has forced the closure of the lake. This bacteria is fatal to dogs, and already some have died from swimming.
Lake Attitash, the largest body of water in town, is a source of Amesbury's water supply.
Also, Broughton said there will be a $3 per car parking fee for people who park in the Amesbury High School and the Cashman Elementary School lots during The Brew concert on July 9. There will be no charge for people who park in downtown lots.
Broughton said it's expected that any out-of-towners will be attending the free concert, and this will be a way to collect some money to help defray the cost of Amesbury Days.
"It seemed to be a fair way to spread it around," she said.
Aside from dropping money in the collection buckets on July 4 or 9, people can make donations online with a credit card, debit card or Paypal account.
Go to the website: http://www.amesburydays.org/ and click the banner ad at the top of any page, or on any inside page, scroll down the sidebar till you see the "Burma Shave" poems and click the firecracker beneath that says "Support Amesbury Days events with an online donation."
People may also mail checks to Amesbury Days, Inc., PO Box 55, Amesbury MA 01913.
Donations are tax-deductible.
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