2013 Elkhart County 4-H Fair Opens Friday at 8:30 a.m.

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2013 Elkhart County 4-H Fair, Creedence Clearwater Revisited, Events, Kid's Day, Queen Pageant, Rodeo, Senior Day, Times, Veteran's Day, Weather

2013 ELKHART COUNTY 4-H FAIR

July 19-27, 2013 FREE Parking ~ FREE Grandstand
Admission $8 – Children 9 years & under FREE

Elkhart County 4-H Fairgrounds
17746-D County Road 34
Goshen, Indiana 46528

This weekend is expected to be hot and humid. Drink plenty of liquids.

FRIDAY, July 19
Veteran’s Day & Senior Citizen’s Day (Seniors admitted FREE until 3:00 p.m.)
9:30-10:30 a.m. SENIOR QUEEN PAGEANT
2:30 p.m. CHEERLEADING CONTEST
8:00 p.m. FAIR QUEEN CONTEST

SATURDAY, July 20
11:00 a.m. HARNESS RACING
8:00 p.m. CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVISITED

SUNDAY, July 21
2:15 p.m. 4-H PARADE
8:00 p.m. JASON CRABB

MONDAY, July 22
10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. DISABILITIES AWARENESS DAY
11:00 a.m. HARNESS RACING
8:00 p.m. FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE featuring Rachael Farley

TUESDAY, July 23
SENIOR CITIZEN’S DAY (Seniors admitted FREE until 3:00 p.m.)
11:00 a.m. HARNESS RACING
8:00 p.m.  VINCE GILL

WEDNESDAY, July 24
KIDS DAY (ALL rides $1 from 1:00 p.m. until closing)
9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. KIDDIELAND ONLY
8:00 p.m. HUNTER HAYES

“Proud Mary,” “Born on the Bayou,” “Up Around the Bend,” “Bad Moon Rising,” “Down on the Corner,” “Fortunate Son” or “Lookin’ Out My Back Door”, Creedence Clearwater Revisited will be keeping the beat to that classic repertoire Saturday at the Elkhart County 4-H Fair.

THURSDAY, July 25
8:00 a.m. FARM STOCK TRACTOR PULL
12:00 p.m. LUCAS OIL TRACTOR & TRUCK PULL

FRIDAY, July 26
10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. GREEN EARTH EDUCATION DAY
1:00 p.m. RODEO (Major Sponsor Monteith Tire)
5:00 p.m. HORSE PULLING CONTEST
8:00 p.m. RODEO (Major Sponsor Monteith Tire)

Saturday, July 27
1;00 p.m. MOTORCYCLE RACES
7:00 p.m. NATION-WIDE DEMOLITION DERBY
AFTER DARK FIREWORKS

FRIDAY, JULY 19, IS VETERAN’S DAY

Friday is Veteran’s day at the Elkhart County 4-H Fair. With a military ID you can get a free ticket at Gate G ONLY.

PANTRY TEAMS UP WITH FAIR TO

COLLECT 125 TONS OF FOOD

Church Community Services is looking forward to an awesome week at the Elkhart Co. 4-H Fair! Come visit them at Building E.

The Elkhart County 4-H Fair and Church Community Services have teamed up to raise 250,000 pounds of food for Elkhart County food pantries this year. You can help them “Harness Hunger in Elkhart County” by donating at the gate or adding a non-perishable food item to the box. Donations on behalf of the program will also be accepted at CCS, 907 Oakland Ave. in Elkhart, and online at churchcommunityservices.org/get-involved/donate/. Donors can specify that the donations are part of the “Fairs Care” campaign and the donations will be counted toward the campaign’s goal of $250,000 pounds or dollars.

The food bank at Church Community Services provides about 70 pounds of food per month to a family of four. With 250,000 pounds of food, they could feed more than 3,500 families for a month.

Church Community Services’ Seed to Feed program will also be featured and will be offering tractor rides this Friday for Ag Day.

Happy Birthday America!!!

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4th of July, Boy Scouts of America, Celebrate, Depression, God Bless America, Hitler, Irving Berlin, Kate Smith, Patriotism, Ronald Reagan

By: Anna Kroyman

Courtesy of Peter Recchio

Do you remember Kate Smith?

Frank Sinatra considered Kate Smith the best singer of her time, and said that when he and a million other guys first heard her sing “God Bless America” on the radio, they all pretended to have dust in their eyes as they wiped away a tear or two.

Here are the facts…

The link at the bottom will take you to a video showing the very first public singing of “GOD BLESS AMERICA”.  But before you watch it, you should also know the story behind the first public showing of the song.

The time was 1940. America was still in a terrible economic depression. Hitler was taking over Europe and Americans were afraid we’d have to go to war. It was a time of hardship and worry for most Americans.

This was the era just before TV, when radio shows were HUGE, and American families sat around their radios in the evenings, listening to their favorite entertainers, and no entertainer of that era was bigger than Kate Smith.

Kate was also large; plus size, as we now say, and the popular phrase still used today is in deference to her, “It ain’t over till the fat lady sings”. Kate Smith might not have made it big in the age of TV, but with her voice coming over the radio, she was the biggest star of her time.

Kate was also patriotic.  It hurt her to see Americans so depressed and afraid of what the next day would bring. She had hope for America, and faith in her fellow Americans. She wanted to do something to cheer them up, so she went to the famous American song-writer, Irving Berlin (who also wrote “White Christmas”) and asked him to write a song that would make Americans feel good again about their country.  When she described what she was looking for, he said he had just the song for her.

He went to his files and found a song that he had written, but never published, 22 years before – way back in 1917. He gave it to and she worked on it with her studio orchestra.  She and Irving Berlin were not sure how the song would be received by the public, but both agreed they would not take any profits from God Bless America. Any profits would go to the Boy Scouts of America. Over the years, the Boy Scouts have received millions of dollars in royalties from this song.

This video starts out with Kate Smith coming into the radio studio with the orchestra and an audience. She introduces the new song for the very first time, and starts singing. After the first couple verses, with her voice in the background still singing, scenes are shown from the 1940 movie, “You’re In The Army Now.”  At the 4:20 mark of the video you see a young actor in the movie, sitting in an office, reading a paper; it’s Ronald Reagan.

To this day, God Bless America stirs our patriotic feelings and pride in our country.  Back in 1940, when Kate Smith went looking for a song to raise the spirits of her fellow Americans, I doubt whether she realized just how successful the results would be for her fellow Americans during those years of hardship and worry….. and for many generations of Americans to follow.  Now that you know the story of the song, I hope you’ll enjoy it and treasure it even more.

EVERYONE HAVE A SAFE AND WONDERFUL 4TH OF JULY!!!

Date Set for Goshen’s 4th of July Fireworks

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2013, 4th of July, Celebrate America, Community, Elkhart County, Elkhart County Indiana, Family Fun, Fireworks, Fireworks Display, Indiana, July, Music

Goshen’s Celebrate America recently held its kick-off meeting at First Baptist Church in Goshen, Indiana.  Celebrate America’s 2013 fireworks display and  patriotic program will be held Sunday, July 7th, at Black Squirrel Golf Course. Two musical groups, Exalt Brass and Gold will perform during the evening.

The patriotic program will begin at about 8:00 PM and the fireworks will go off at dark (about 10:00 PM). There is no charge for admission and free parking will be available at the First Baptist Church of Goshen, or Goshen Middle School. Both are on the corner of Plymouth and Indiana Ave. and are just a short walk from the Golf Course. Handicapped parking is available at the Golf Course. Bring your blanket, lawn chairs, lawn games, and picnic for a relaxing and fun family friendly evening! Concessions will be available.

According to Goshen Celebrate America’s president, Greg Lanzen, Celebrate America’s annual firework display is just the icing on the cake.  “We celebrate with a party,” Lanzen said, “but the rest of the year we are busy overseeing different parts of Celebrate America with a patriotism education program at Goshen’s middle and elementary schools and with our veterans program.”

As part of the veteran’s program, Goshen’s Celebrate America partners with local veterans organizations to help send WWII, Korean, and Vietnam veterans to Washington D.C. to tour the city and Washington D.C.’s military memorials.”

Here is a video of Goshen’s VFW Post’s 2009 trip. Maybe you’ll see yourself or someone you know on this video:

Elkhart County Commissioners approve fireworks for Labor Day weekend

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Celebrate, Family Fun, Fireworks, Fireworks Display, Frank Lucchese, Holiday, Labor Day Weekend

By JOHN KLINE THE GOSHEN NEWS

GOSHEN — Elkhart County Commissioners Monday approved the temporary use of fireworks over the upcoming Labor Day weekend. The vote was made as a concession to the forced emergency ban on fireworks enacted over the 4th of July holiday due to ongoing drought conditions in the area.

“So we’re opening this up temporarily for only the year 2012 for four days, Aug. 31, Sept. 1, Sept. 2 and Sept. 3,” said Elkhart County Commissioner Mike Yoder. “For us I think it was an issue of fairness.”

According to Commissioner Frank Lucchese, the idea for the temporary allowance of fireworks stems from the large number of comments the commissioners have received from area residents who say they made expensive purchases of fireworks earlier in the year with the idea that they would be allowed to shoot them off over the 4th of July holiday.

Read more HERE.

Elkhart County Commissioners Monday, Aug. 20, 2012, approved the temporary use of fireworks over the upcoming Labor Day weekend. The vote was made as a concession to the forced emergency ban on fireworks enacted over the 4th of July holiday due to ongoing drought conditions in the area.

Sunday’s ‘Celebrate America’ Fireworks Show in Goshen Cancelled

Goshen’s annual Celebrate America program and community fireworks originally scheduled for Sunday has been cancelled, according to Celebrate America President Gregg Lanzen. There will be no make-up date.

Lanzen said hot and dry conditions in Goshen were the reason for the cancellation.

Now in its 21st year, The annual Celebrate America program routinely attracts between 10,000 and 20,000 spectators each year.

Elkhart Flotilla and Fireworks to be held July 4

This year’s Upper St. Joseph Flotilla will have a new theme as well as a new time of display.

The event will take place at 9 p.m. Wednesday, July 4. The theme will be “Light the Night;” that’s why coordinators decided to change the time of the event.

The flotilla will form at 8:30 p.m. at Bulldog Crossing and will go down the river following a lighted path along the south bank of the river. Some bleachers will be placed at Martin’s Landing on Jackson Boulevard that evening for spectators.

At 10:15 p.m. the participants will be asked to turn off their lights if there is a fireworks display.

Andy Jones, one of the coordinators of the event, said the flotilla will take place despite whether the city will have the fireworks display or not.

Celebrate America Fireworks, July 1st at Black Squirrel Golf Course!

Goshen’s 2012 Celebrate America has been scheduled for  Sunday, July 1st at Black Squirrel Golf Course on Plymouth Ave. S.R. 119 beginning about 8:00 PM.

Celebrate America is a patriotic event held at the Black Squirrel Golf Course in Goshen, IN, the Sunday closest to the 4th of July each year. The  program  includes fireworks, music, guest speakers and introductions of military veterans. An estimated 20,000 people attend the event annually.

The Celebrate America organization also sponsors educational programs for fourth- and eighth-graders and awards scholarships to help six Goshen Middle School students attend an annual trip to Washington, D.C.