Copper Harbor, area celebrates
Copper Harbor, area celebrates
Residents, visitors turn out to mark nation’s independence
| CAPTION: Kayla Gahagan/Daily Mining Gazette Brett Siegwert, 8, and Gina Helminen, 9, show their excitement as they prepare for the wheelbarrow race during Copper Harbor’s kids’ games. |
By KAYLA GAHAGAN, DMG Writer
COPPER HARBOR — The Filsinger family set up their annual Fourth of July lemonade stand in front of their Copper Harbor summer cottage Tuesday knowing they wouldn’t make a dime.
Even the kids, Matthew, 6, and Morgan, 8, passed out the cups knowing the rewards weren’t going into their piggy banks. But that reason might be why the family from Ypsilanti, Mich. worked so hard at their modest, one-table, homemade stand — they donate all the proceeds to the local community.
“The community just really appreciates it a lot,” said the kids’ mother Misty. “It’s never forgotten.” The family vacations at the cottage for a month every summer, a tradition that began eight years ago while they were on their way to a family reunion.
“We stopped to see what was up here and we stayed longer than we should,” Misty said. “We got in trouble because we were late to the reunion.”
The idea for the lemonade stand came five years ago when the family heard that Hunter’s Point needed money. Because of the influx of visitors to the area on the Fourth, the family spent the afternoon and better part of the evening selling lemonade for donations and found their idea worked. They donated the proceeds that first year to Hunter’s Point, the second year to Estivant Pines and the local school will reap the rewards this year. The money, hopefully between two and three hundred dollars, will go toward purchasing books, Misty said.
Misty said the cottage, which is located along the harbor, is a perfect place for the stand on the Fourth because it catches all the people heading to the shoreline to watch the fireworks.
The family keeps the stand open from about 4 p.m. to almost midnight, but first they take in some of the Copper Harbor Fourth of July activities, including a 10 a.m. parade and kids’ activities in the park.
For the afternoon, the local park is filled with sack races, tug-of-war games, face painting, egg tossing, and watermelon eating contests.
Gina Helminen smiled as she coughed from the dust kicked up during a wheelbarrow race.
“This is the first year we’re not camping,” said the 9-year-old.
For the Filsingers, the flood of people in Copper Harbor every year for the Fourth is just icing on the cake.
“It’s fun,” Misty said. “It’s something we talk about all year.”
Kayla Gahagan can be reached at kgahagan@mininggazette.com
Previous page: Task Force formed to prepare for pandemic
Next page: Mozart’s opera ‘The Magic Flute’ appeals to the child in all of us