By Mila Lira
Despite the unusual rain and clouds that hung around Superior for most of the Fourth of July, the community still celebrated America’s birthday. Even though the fireworks were not held this year, Superior families enjoyed many of their favorite pastimes: swimming, horseshoes, Cornhole, dancing and eating.
With funding from Resolution Copper and the RICO funds given to the town for summer recreation activities by Sheriff Paul Babeu and County Attorney James Walsh, residents were treated to FREE hamburgers, hotdogs, drinks, snow cones and watermelon. This was good thing considering participants had ample opportunities to build up an appetite with the various tournaments, swimming and dancing. Kids were treated to free glow sticks, bouncy castles, face painting and balloon animals.
New to the annual Fourth of July festivities this year was a cake decorating contest. There were six cakes submitted and three cakes took the top three prizes. Winning for the best use of technique and decoration was Christina Magallanez; Best use of Theme went to Christin Uriquijo and Jesse Arroyos for their “America the Beautiful Cake”; and winning the best tasting cake category went to Lila Torres for her cake which had a peach cheesecake filling and rum frosting.
The horseshoe and Cornhole tournaments were sponsored by the Superior Optimist Club and were done to raise money for the Longoria and Castillo families who lost their homes to fires in June. The tournament raised $1000 which was split equally between the two families.
Superior’s own Angie Gomez and her partner “The Manic Hispanic” entertained the crowd with their favorite songs. Several residents won tickets to upcoming concerts which were donated by Gomez and Manic.
Many of the local community groups and businesses also contributed to the event. Contributing to the event were The Red Bear Outfitters who cooked all the food for the event, Tameron Ice, Tameron Septic, Superior Optimist Club, Superior Rotary Club and the Superior Chamber of Commerce. Volunteers from the Optimist, Rotary, Substance Abuse Coalition and the Superior Little League also assisted during the day.
Check out more photos from the event here.