We did it! Positively!Pottstown teamed up with Code Blue and pulled off a raffle to support the July 4th festivities. We raised $600 for the Pottstown July 4th Committee AND gave away $300, Code Blue t-shirts and Positively!Pottstown re-usable bags to 2 lucky winners. The winners were Jim Bondi of Harleysville and Tom Ziemba of Pottstown. Tom and his wife have been coming to the July 4th Celebration ever since she was pregnant with their son… and he’s now 32 years old!
The ticket-selling team pounding the pavements of High Street during the parade and the fields at Memorial Park included myself, Judy Zahora, Chris Huff, Amy Francis, Stephanie Carmody and assorted spouses and children. Check out Code Blue and Roy’s Rants for other reports.
The raffle came together during the past couple weeks in the blogosphere when Amy Francis responded to my Homecoming Queen post. Smale’s Printery was able to turn the job around in a few days, and Chris Stafy and the rest of the July 4th Committee were all appreciative of the efforts and the results. We had a huge amount of fun hanging out and getting advertising support from Brad Fuller, Executive Director of the Pottstown Area Senior Center, who was on the mike all day long at the tent next to ours. The Senior Center did an amazing job raising the big bucks through the car raffle.
On a personal note, I had a blast hawking tickets and running into old friends and friends of my parents. Having lived away from home for about 30 years now, I can tell you that it goes straight to the heart when someone says, “Are you Richard’s daughter?” or “You look just like your mom,” which are a couple of the comments I got while selling tickets on the parade route. I’ve hardly ever heard that all these years, and it sure made me feel connected – that someone knew where I was from and who my people are. Thanks, Pottstown.
Positively Pottstown blog 
Congratulations, and thanks, to you, Sue; the folks at Code Blue, Roy, and all committee volunteers (and a special shout to Chris Stafy, who I met in person for the first time only last week), for all the terrific work you’ve done collectively to pull off a great celebration. I sadly must report I was unable to enjoy the festivities, but The Posts’ inbox has received plenty of positive comments on how things went.
Nice job, all!
Thanks, Joe! Sorry you couldn’t be there. And I second the shout-out to Chris Stafy and the rest of the committee – such a lot of work and a job well done!