Soggy, but successful

<p class="p1">EDITOR'S NOTE: See more coverage of the 4th of July Celebration online at www.randolphcountyheraldtribune.com and in this week's print editions of the Randolph County Herald Tribune and Steeleville Ledger.

<p class="p1">STEELEVILLE -- The 150th Steeleville 4th of July Celebration is now in the rearview mirror, leaving organizers the task of analyzing its success.

<p class="p1">"This is what I observed," said 4th of July Celebration Committee Chairman Mike Kuehnle. "After the parade, typically we get this rush of people who come up to the (Legion) park and eat a sandwich and split.

<p class="p1">"We had an awesome program and people stayed."

<p class="p1">Optimal weather conditions on Friday gave way to three days of rain that held down crowd sizes, but parade co-coordinator Lea Dintelman estimated around 5,000 people still attended Monday's event.

<p class="p1">"I think we usually have 5,000 to 7,000," she said. "We did a drone flyover and I could tell that the numbers were a little bit down.

<p class="p1">"We had about the average number of entries (80) and I think everybody showed up."

<p class="p1">The parade featured unique entries like the NUTmobile, which is on tour to celebrate Mr. Peanut's 100th birthday.

<p class="p1">"That's been in the works for about a year and we were fortunate to get them," Dintelman said. "This was the start of their tour and their third stop, so we were fortunate that they were able to come."

<p class="p1">The area's fire departments were well represented, with at least nine participating in the parade, and the National Guard brought one of its own fire vehicles as well.

<p class="p1">"I think it was one of our better parades with the four bands we had," Dintelman said. "I think the rain held the crowd down a little bit."

<p class="p1">The weather did have an impact on some activities and events scheduled for the Celebration.

<p class="p1">The Firecracker Rumble, a poker run-style event, drew only two people and the Harold Harmsen Wood Bat Classic was cancelled after the first day.

<p class="p1">"We're thinking about doing it again either at the end of this month or in August," Kuehnle said of the Firecracker Rumble. "We've got 19 sponsors out there that participated in this and we'd like to put it on and we'd like to know if people are interested in it."

<p class="p1">Other events were more successful such as the Ladies Auxiliary chicken dinner that followed the God & Country Service in Steeleville City Park on Sunday.

<p class="p1">"The chicken dinner sold out on Sunday," Kuehnle said. "We didn't sell a lot of soda, we didn't sell a lot of ice cream because it wasn't too hot.

<p class="p1">"It's so hard to plan for something like the 150th Celebration and have three days of rain."

<p class="p1">Ardell Kloth won the attendance grand prize of $500, while organizers are looking for the holder of pink ticket No. 198716 for the 50/50 drawing.

<p class="p1">The person who has that ticket is advised to contact Kuehnle at 618-799-9202 for verification.

<p class="p1">Kuehnle was asked his thoughts on next year's Celebration.

<p class="p1">"Laser tag was a big smash, surprisingly, with the younger kids," he said. "The Boy Scouts enjoyed the dunking tank, they're talking about coming back.

<p class="p1">"I'd love to see the churches come back. They kind of struggled with what they did, but I'd like to see more of them work together."

<p class="p1">Kuehnle gave credit to the Steeleville Police Department for their job in policing the Celebration, as well as to the many volunteers who helped make the four-day event a success.

<p class="p1">"I don't take credit for any of this, this was the people who put this all together," he said.

<p class="p1">Overall winners for the Firecracker 3K were Hannah Cherry, of Carbondale, with a time of 10 minutes, 18 seconds in the female division. Atlantis Green, also of Carbondale, was the overall male winner with a time of 10 minutes, 4 seconds.

<p class="p1">For anyone interested in helping out with the Celebration, meetings are held the first Tuesday of every month at the Steeleville American Legion.