Palmer Independence Day Celebration
Contributed by Marilyn Bennett
Call out for volunteers for this 4th of July 2026 celebration.
This year is the 250th anniversary of our country declaring independence from Great Britain. We felt that Palmer, Alaska deserves a special event to celebrate the 4th this year. Since fireworks do not work in Alaska, we thought it would be a great idea to have a rededication of the Declaration of Independence, right here in Palmer. St. John’s Lutheran Church has been celebrating July 4th for the past several years with a patriotic ceremony in the church. This year they want to host an outdoor celebration on the green. The plan is to involve as much of the community as possible in order to make it a fun event for everyone in Palmer.
This article is written as an invitation to fellow patriots and fun-loving people to participate in our celebration. This outdoor event on the green is planned for 3 p.m. so as to not conflict with the parade in Wasilla. Those who want to go to the parade can still come back to Palmer for a hometown celebration of the 4th. The duration of the ceremonies will be approximately 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Face painting, rock painting, and other activities for kids are planned. We are hoping to make this a memorial experience for all involved.
We now have a field cannon and black powder musket that will be fired as part of the ceremony. We are looking for a drummer or a traditional fife and drum group. A small snare drum would be great. We also need as many people as possible dressed in traditional colonial outfits to help create a great atmosphere here in Palmer.
I plan to come as Abigail Adams and give a short speech celebrating one of the first feminists in our country. She tried her best to get rights for women written into our constitution. She definitely started the conversation on the rights of women in our country. We also plan to have a reading of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. We are looking for speakers, entertainers, and musicians, give us your ideas and we will try to fit you in.
We will have someone doing face painting and may set up a small tent to entertain the kids. If you are an artist and want to get involved, we would love to hear from you. Our goal this year is to respectfully honor the milestone of 250 years by creating a memorial experience for our community. We need people who are interested in dressing in period costumes and also those who enjoy presenting small skits or speeches from the Revolutionary Period.
We will have a display of flags and other objects and documents from the time period. If you have any items you would like to display please contact us so we can coordinate the display with our own. We know there are many resources and creative people in this community. Put on your period costume and a happy face. It should be a grand time for all. The celebration will be followed with hot dogs and other traditional picnic food, probably not from the colonial period.
Please contact Scott to give him your ideas at moscapoet@gmail.com. He will fill you in on what all he is looking at for the celebration and definitely welcomes your input. If you have questions about period dress or whatever you could ask me marilynmadd@hotmail.com. I don’t know much, but am always ready to share my limited knowledge.