By Meg Peters
Review Staff Writer
Downtown Lake Orion will be booming this Saturday when a last-minute fireworks show takes flight just off Green’s Park.
The Lion’s Club Jubilee fireworks show will last about 30 minutes beginning at 10 p.m. as 1,700 shells burst into the sky. The display can be viewed from Green’s Park, and entry is free. The fireworks will be shot over Lake Orion from a barge.
After the show, the Lion’s invite everyone back to the carnival and beer tent, with extended hours until midnight on Saturday.
If a rain date is needed the show will be Sunday at 10 p.m. with the carnival and beer tent shutting down at 11 p.m.
The idea for a fireworks show came to life when Lake Orion village council members and local business owners approached the Lion’s Club asking for during the Jubilee if they could help raise enough money, Joe Hildebrand, Lions Club Jubilee chairman, said.
‘Everyone loves the fact that all three things are coming back (downtown), the carnival, the beer tent and the fireworks,? Hildebrand said. ‘We know there’s another fireworks association out there trying to do the same thing we are but because it (their show) was moved it opened up an opportunity for us to bring it back downtown.?
The Lion’s have already raised about $10,000, and are shooting for $15,000 by the time of the show. Multiple local businesses including Milosch’s Palace, Golling Buick GMC, The Lake Orion Michigan Fireworks, Abacus Accounting, Ed’s Broadway Gift and Costume, and Valero have donated funds for the show. Waste Management and Rizzo have also donated trash receptacles to be placed along M24 during the carnival and fireworks.
The Lion’s are also providing a free shuttle service for the Jubilee at the intersection of Flint St. and Orion Rd. and also a shuttle from the Lake Orion Schools Administration building at Church St. and Lapeer St.
Shuttles, from the North Oakland Transportation Authority, will run from noon to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and from noon until 6 p.m. Sunday.
The Lion’s carnival company Skerbeck Carnival has also donated to the fireworks effort. Carnival set-up took place at about 6 a.m. June 18 after downtown roads were closed.
The annual 4th of July fireworks show hosted by the Lake Orion Fireworks Association will also be free to watch from Green’s Park.
The LOFA Annual Breakfast Fundraiser will take place Saturday, June 29 from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. A free boat shuttle is available from the dock behind the Porritt Lighthouse building on M 24 north of Heights Rd. The cost is $12 for adults and $6 for children 12 years old and under.