Committee's efforts pay off with revitalized fireworks show

The poet T.S. Eliot once wrote that it'll all end not with a bang but a whimper. For the Anaconda Fireworks Committe, however, it was just the opposite as what began with virtual desperation last fall ended with a bang – a roughly 17-minute long one at that – on Thursday night, July 4 with Anaconda's 25th Annual Fireworks Show. 

And it was a labor of love. It had to be, for everything it took to get those 650 mortar shells in the pyrotechnic show off the ground.

It all started with building a new team for the show, as the previous one – the Anaconda Celebrations United Veterans – stepped down in 2023. Nicole Strutzel, who has been involved with the show since she was a kid, stepped in at the last minute last year to get the necessary licensing for that show to go on, and afterward built up the new team going forward. 

Then it was a matter of fundraising, and Strutzel and the committee's treasurer, Crissi Woolbright, pounded the pavement – in Strutzel's case literally, as she walked up and down the length of Anaconda multiple times soliciting donations – in an effort to build up their war chest. 

Month after month the committee held fundraising events, and it all paid off as they went from a few hundred dollars in October to right around $30,000 by the day of the show – and while that includes a $3,000 donation from Anaconda-Deer Lodge County it doesn't include the concessions from Thursday night's boxing matches donated to the committee as well. 

Most of the funds, however, were from local businesses, Woolbright said. 

"Donation checks, sponsorship checks – businesses donated for our raffles and silent auctions," she said. 

And at the same time as the fundraising, they also built up their crew to plan out and set up the show. 

"It's a really great group of hard-working people just trying to make sure the show continues," said Strutzel the evening of the show as she and the "Hill Crew" worked on setting up the mortars on the ridge above Washoe Park.

Leading that crew was the show's pyrotechnician, Chris Grover, and while this was his first time as Anaconda's fireworks director he's no stranger to the spectacle, having gotten his start doing fireworks shows for his family. 

"I started in my backyard, just doing a little show for my family. It got bigger and bigger every year, so I decided to get my pyrotechnics license," Grover said. "I've done six shows, but this is my first for Anaconda. I grew up on North Locust watching the fireworks show every year and I told myself I'm going to do that one day, and here I am. Even if I only have one shot, at least I got to do it."

And he certainly did – he and his crew of veterans, volunteer firefighters, motorcyclists and others. While their work that day started early up on the hill with cleaning out, arranging, filling and wiring the mortars, it began well before that with Grover purchasing the fireworks themselves and then scripting the show out on a computer. 

"You have to figure out the times and different shell sizes to set off at different times," Grover said. "I start by planning out the show in my head. Then once it's planned out, I let the guys pick the jobs they want to do. Everyone has their own job, and we spread out and do what we gotta do." 

The shells range from 3 inches to 6 inches, with the bigger the shell meaning the bigger the spread in the air, Grover said. 

"It's really important to have a different spread. You don't want everything low or everything high," he said. 

In total there were about 650 shells spread out across 17 minutes – plus the finale. 

"The finale is the fun part in how it comes together," Grover said. "You have to have a passion for it. It's an artwork."

"But it's fun," Strutzel said.

It certainly was for the many watching the display, either in the park or on the hills opposite from it, as cheers could be heard across town as the show concluded.

While it was a lot of work and they continue to need more help with it going forward, Strutzel said she's committed to doing it for years to come.

"This is for the veterans, this is for the kids, this is for the families. We just have to come together," she said.

The Anaconda Fireworks Committee is a nonprofit organization staffed entirely by volunteers. To get involved, go to the Anaconda Fireworks Committee's Facebook page.