Despite rain Steeleville celebration goes on
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Despite a rain-filled 4th of July, this year's celebration of our nation's birthday still seemed to be a success.
The festivities got underway on Thursday, July 2, with the start of the 2nd Annual Harold Harmsen Wooden Bat Tournament in the afternoon. The carnival rides started up around 6:00 p.m. that evening with the DJ stylings of "Krystal Klear" beginning at 8:00 p.m.
On Friday, July 3, the Harold Harmsen Wooden Bat Tournament continued and the rides started up around the same time as the night before. The musical entertainment on this night was the band "LevelD." LevelD ignited the crowd with their unique Rock & Country Jam sound.
Both Thursday and Friday seemed to be successes and the crowds were good throughout the nights as the weather cooperated.
On Saturday, July 4, however, the rain came down hard in the early morning. The scheduled Firecracker 3k race still went on, though, despite a short delay for lightning. The winners of the race for overall male and overall female were Brad Reach, of Marion, for male and Candace Caveny, of Mascoutah, for female.
The annual parade was scheduled to take place immediately following the race, which was around 10:15 a.m. The rain, however, was still falling at this time so the parade was put on hold. At around 11:00 a.m. in the morning it was heard that Lea Dintelman, one of the people in charge of the parade, told WHCO 1230 that if the rain did not stop by 11:30 a.m. the parade would be cancelled. This was due in part because it was a safety issue since many surrounding communities firemen and policemen were in the parade. Miraculously, though, the rain stopped at about 11:20 a.m. and it was heard that the parade would start at 11:30 a.m. Many residents and spectators made their way back to their spots along the road to watch the parade. Highlighting the parade was Fred Bird and the Southern Illinois Miners' mascots, as well as the Keystone Kops, the Steeleville Marching Warriors, the Ainad Color Guard, Nuts and Bolts Antique Car Unit and many floats.
The top three winners in the float judging in the business category were First National Bank of Steeleville coming in 1st place, the float by First State Bank of Campbell Hill (Steeleville Branch) coming in 2nd place, and Tub Surgeon in 3rd place. The top three winners in the churches and organizations category was the Steeleville Baptist Church coming in 1st place, with the Red Hat Society coming in 2nd place, and the float made by St. Mark's Church and School coming in 3rd place.
Beginning in the morning, as well, was the arts and crafts show that took place in park.
Immediately after the parade finished, the skies opened up again and started pouring down rain. Later in the day it was determined that the carnival rides, music and the fireworks would be put off until Sunday. Also, the final two games of the Harold Harmsen Wooden Bat Tournament would be postponed to Tuesday.
With the rides opening back up early Sunday afternoon, the overall activity was moving pretty slow. There were not many big crowds until later in the night. The band "Bad Intentions" brought more people out with their rocking sound and pretty soon the carnival was pretty full again, with many people waiting to get a good spot to see the fireworks that were scheduled to begin around 10:00 p.m. in the evening. As usual, the fireworks display was very good and well worth the wait from Saturday.
Later that evening they also had the raffling off of the 2009 Ford Focus in the Legion park. The winner of the car was Bernice Bockhorn of Steeleville.
The rain may have delayed certain aspects of the celebration or got a few people wet, but the celebration still seemed to be a success this year in Steeleville.