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PORT CHESTER, N.Y. - Port Chester is known for its diversity and this year's fireworks display at the local high school mirrored the best of the village; colorful and entertaining.
Several thousand locals and visitors were treated to the booming cacophony of the 15-minute display of pyrotechnics and sound while songs such as Bruce Springsteen's American anthem "Born in the USA" strained to be heard amid the rolls of sound from the fireworks and the oohs and ahhs of the crowd.
"These are the best fireworks around," said Roger Busch of nearby Greenwich, Conn., who was at Ryan Stadium with his wife Andrea and daughter Tamara. "I like the setting, the stands and the open skies right in front of us. I like it all, the singing, the awards ceremony. It's real Americana at its best."
The fireworks were created by Long Island's Grucci family, among the best known pyrotechnic companies in the country. According to Town of Rye Supervisor Joseph Carvin, who spoke and also brought his wife and two daughters to the show, the community raised about $20,000, including monies paid by the villages of Port Chester and Rye Brook and the Town of Rye, to which both communities belong to.
"This succeeds because the community wanted it to," said Carvin, as he looked out to the high school where he graduated in 1973 and has attended dozens of July 4 festivities as both a youth and adult. "This brings the community together to celebrate all the good there is in America.
The celebration lasted a couple of hours and the field was rimmed with bumper to bumper cars, vendors and people setting off their own personal stashes of illegal fireworks, some of which rose about 50 to 60 feet in the air.
The main show was colorful but compact, leaving one of the younger viewers wistful for more.
"I wished the finale went on forever," said seven year old Lucas Orlovitz of Goldens Bridge, who was there with his father and Broadway musician Allen Orlovitz and his younger sister Suzanna. "It was great, much better than last year.
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