West Side Veterans Council seeks donations for Iron River fireworks and services

If the West Side Veterans Council cannot line up enough donations, Iron River risks losing the fireworks show that has long anchored the Fourth of July celebration, along with the veteran services that the same dollars pay for all year.

The council’s annual fundraising drive begins in May because the holiday display comes with rising fireworks and insurance costs, and the organization has to secure support early to keep the show viable. The Iron County Lodging Association says the council pays for the Iron River fireworks show, while merchants have traditionally helped carry the cost so the burden does not fall on local taxpayers alone.

Those contributions do more than light the sky over town. The council uses the money to place American flags at the graves of deceased veterans for Memorial Day, organize cemetery ceremonies, provide military honors at funerals and burials when requested, and carry out honor guard duties at schools and other local events. That work keeps veterans visible in Iron River long after the July 4 crowd goes home.

The fireworks themselves are launched by the West Iron County Fire Department from the north end of Stambaugh Airport, turning a familiar stretch of airport property into the staging ground for one of the community’s best-known summer traditions. In recent years, the City of Iron River and the Iron River Downtown Development Authority each budgeted $2,500 toward the fireworks, underscoring that the display has depended on a mix of public and private support.

The celebration has deep roots in local civic life. A 2023 listing for the Westside Veterans Council parade said the Independence Day parade stepped off from the West Iron County High School parking lot and was led by the council’s honor guard. For 2025, regional Independence Day coverage named John Cimarelli as parade marshal for Iron River’s annual patriotic observance, another sign the event remains a community centerpiece with familiar local faces attached to it.

Memorial Day shows the same pattern. An Iron River observance notice said the program began with a volley at Iron River Cemetery at 8:30 a.m. and continued at the Veterans Memorial on Genesee Street at 9:30 a.m., both led by the West Side Veterans Council. That reach, from cemetery rites to school ceremonies to fireworks over the holiday weekend, is what the council is trying to preserve with this year’s appeal.

The council is a registered 501(c) nonprofit, so donations are tax deductible. For Iron River, the question is not only whether the fireworks return, but whether the veteran honors woven through county life stay visible, funded, and intact.