The Day the People of Seattle Saved the Fireworks

In less than 24 hours, individuals and business, large and small, rally to raise over $500K to fund the event

April 2, 2010 will forever be known as the day the people of Seattle saved the Family 4th at Lake Union fireworks celebration. The unprecedented groundswell of community support for this event was singularly responsible for keeping it an essential part of Seattle’s Fourth of July tradition.

After the announcement was made that the Family 4th would be placed on a one-year hiatus due to lack of corporate funding, news spread and waves of shock and sadness rippled throughout the region. The morning after the announcement, Dave Ross was discussing the news during his talk show on 97.3 KIRO FM when Tom Douglas, local Seattle uber-chef, called in. In a spontaneous move, Tom pledged $5000 to save the Family 4th and challenged other local businesses to do the same. Immediately, Dave Ross also pledged $1000 towards the effort. The race was on to raise the $500,000 needed to produce the 2010 Family 4th celebration!

KIRO immediately established a website to take donations of $1000 or larger, and the outpouring was instantaneous. Not long after people clamoring to contribute in smaller increments were flooding One Reel’s phone lines. With an overwhelming sense of community pride, One Reel set up a website to receive those donations as well. Later that afternoon, Tom Douglas announced on KIRO that Starbucks and Microsoft had agreed to match pledges of $125,000 each. This effectively insured that with $250,000 from the community, the Family 4th at Lake Union would not go dark.

Donations continued to come in throughout the night and by 9am the following morning—less than 24 hours after it started—Dave Ross, Tom Douglas, and hundreds of businesses and individuals had done it! The $500,000 needed to keep the Family 4th alive had been raised.

Thank you, Seattle! From this day forward, this event is truly yours!