Dating back to at least the late 1960s, the Warrensburg Jaycees put on the fireworks for our community, as did many Jaycees chapters across the state. They had an amazing tradition in Warrensburg, and the Jaycees were the leaders and backbone of this town. You name a person in town, and they were probably a Jaycee at one time or another.
When I took over the helm of the Jaycees in 1996, we were still putting on the fireworks at the current high school, shooting them off from a field just southeast of the school (now the athletic complex) that Dr. Hannah owned and donated to us to use. He was a former Jaycee himself. We loved doing it for the community, but even back then it was a huge undertaking.
From 1996 to 1999 we continued the show out there. We upped our fundraising, added music, and brought in more fireworks and different types. We started making it more of an event, not just fireworks. We even ventured to Illinois to work with a professional company so we could deliver something closer to a professional-grade show for the community.
All of these were Class B fireworks, which are professional grade. The average public cannot buy them, and they are heavily regulated by the ATF. The last year we did the show at the high school, in 1999, it cost $3,000.
We spent a year fundraising for it. The bulk of the cost was paid for by Warrensburg businesses. We sent a letter to every business and collected $25 to $100 a pop, and then recognized every donor in a full-page ad donated by the Daily Star Journal. It was a full-blown, community-business-supported thing. No tax dollars were spent, but the city supported us logistically.
By 1999, we had outgrown the high school. In-and-out traffic congestion had become too much. So a few of us in the club had an idea. Clinton had a festival, and so did other towns for the Fourth of July. We created a group called the Freedom Festival, and the Jaycees' part of it would be fireworks.
A couple of us organized and mobilized the leaders of every entity in our community. We had representation from the City (Police, Fire, and City Works), the University, Parks and Recreation, the Chamber, the Runners Club, the Bicycling Club, and the Community Band. In 2000, we all worked together to hold the first-ever citywide Freedom Festival, a multi-day event celebrating our nation's birthday in proper fashion.
Our inaugural celebration was held at the University football field. Our dream was to have a concert, fireworks, and a lot of other stuff going on simultaneously all over Warrensburg, and this group pulled it off. Liverpool, a Beatles tribute band, performed to a packed stadium. The businesses of the community paid for it, and that year Mr. Rick Swisher of Swishers Farm and Home donated over $2,500 to pay for the concert. It was the largest keystone donation we had ever collected. The University and the City did their part by paying for the stage, sound, and lighting, and providing logistical support. Fireworks that year cost a little over $5,000.
The festival was a huge success. Many of us had always envisioned Small Town America having a proper Fourth of July celebration, and this was it. From a 5K run to a historic bicycle tour of the city, to a kids parade and free swim hosted by Parks and Recreation, to the concert, and finally the most amazing fireworks we had ever put on, thanks to a new member who specifically joined to be in charge of the pyrotechnics: Kit Lindsay. He was all in.
In 2001 we repeated the festival without the concert, with the idea that the concert would be an every-other-year thing. The fireworks were even better, and more than 8,000 people attended. Kit and his crew had seriously upped their game. The Maastricht Friendship Tower had never been so beautifully illuminated and served as the premier backdrop for the show that year. I believe even a full moon watched overhead.
Then 9/11 happened, and everything changed with Class B explosives and fireworks. The regulations, certifications, storage and delivery requirements, and insurance became extremely difficult and expensive. Fireworks tripled in price almost overnight. We figured it out, because our community needed this event more than ever after 9/11. We scaled back the show and found a way. Again, it took a community-together effort to make it happen.
In 2004 we could no longer do the show at the University stadium because they had installed field turf and there was a burn concern. They gave us an alternate spot at the baseball field, and that's where it stayed from 2004 through 2006.
The 2006 show was the very last Jaycees-sponsored show. We disbanded the Jaycees that year due to a lack of membership and involvement. By then, the fireworks show had honestly become a nightmare to put together. The expense, the regulations, and the loss of a great venue like the University stadium had all taken their toll. Leadership across the community had changed too, and the cooperative effort that once made it possible had quietly gone its separate ways. It takes everyone working together to put on an event like this.
Thank goodness for Grover Park Baptist Church and their leadership team. Without them, fireworks in Warrensburg would have disappeared after 2006. They had started several years earlier with their own celebration using Class C fireworks, which are more easily purchased and shot off. Grover Park Baptist Church provided our community with a fireworks show from 2007–2023.
