Meet the woman who never stops planning for Independence Day in Chatom, Alabama
CHATOM, Alabama — Once the fireworks explode and the crowds leave Chatom’s annual Independence Day celebration, coordinator Fran Thornton starts planning for what is one of the town’s best-attended events.
Thornton, a Chatom native, prides herself on creating a safe, fun, and family-friendly event for her community to enjoy. Thornton’s mission is to create an experience that reflects well on the town.
After 15 years, she said she still enjoys the opportunity “to be able to give back.”
She is constantly trying to find ways to make the evening more convenient and fun. Thornton shared, “I start planning the night of the Fourth for next year’s celebration.”
The 2023 Independence Day celebration held July 3 attracted more than 2,000 to Chatom’s Community Center near Lake Ellis for fireworks, music, games, and plenty of blooming onions, funnel cakes, snow cones, and other favorite treats.
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“It is amazing," Thornton said. "People come from hundreds of miles–Mississippi, Baldwin County, Choctaw County, Clarke County. They tell me they just don’t have anything like this where they live that is both safe and 6affordable to enjoy.”
Those who gathered for the fireworks this year seemed to approve. A visitor from Georgia, Lindsay Smith, said, “I loved it. It’s like a Fourth of July Hallmark movie scene.”
The celebration featured carnival rides provided by Fun Time Event Services, a company based in Waynesboro, Mississippi. In addition to rides, the company provided water slides and the culminating firework show.
Haley Foster of Chatom, 8, said, “My second favorite part of today was the carnival rides, but my first favorite part was seeing all the families having fun and sitting together watching the fireworks.”
Before the fireworks began, the town encouraged the crowd to set up lawn chairs or blankets and enjoy live entertainment from the Tim Roberts Band. The band plays around 300 shows each year from New Orleans to Panama City.
One of the behind-the-scenes tasks Thornton does each year is ensuring the fireworks show begins as Bailey Hill sings “and the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,” in the “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Thornton sings along with Hill on the phone and signals the owner of Fun Time Events Services across Lake Ellis so he can know when to light the first fireworks.
The town of Chatom, Thornton said, prides itself on making the event free except what families choose to buy from the vendors and a $2 parking fee, which is donated to the local Shriners Club.
Along with the town, the event was sponsored by Turner, Onderdonk, Kimbrough & Howell, P.A., B&F Drugs, Andrews Hardware, Smartbank, The First Bank, Millry Communications, Washington County Hospital and Nursing Home, and other businesses in the area.
Local businesses are given the opportunity to bring food trucks or set up tables to sell food or merchandise and ultimately promote their business. The town does not charge the vendors a fee, and all proceeds funnel back into local businesses.
The town also gives back to the local school by paying an organization, this year the Washington County High School cheerleaders, to help kids put on free festive temporary tattoos. The event is also a volunteer opportunity for the winners of the Little Miss Washington County pageant whose winners pass out free fans, flags, and bubbles.
Mayor Harold Crouch said, “Our Fourth celebration is a mainstay in the town of Chatom because it allows us to celebrate our nation's founding, as well as our veterans, and all of those that supported our veterans in the creation of our county.”
He added, “We are very thankful to everyone in our past history that has made this day possible, and I hope that God continues to bless the town of Chatom.”
Jessica Criswell, a Living Democracy student at Auburn University, is living and learning this summer in her hometown of Chatom, Alabama, as a Jean O'Connor Snyder Intern with the David Mathews Center for Civic Life. The nonprofit program, coordinated by the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts, prepares undergraduate college students for civic life through living-learning experiences in the summer.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Meet the woman who never stops planning for Independence Day in Chatom
