Rexburg Chamber of Commerce invites Freedom Celebration to Rexburg

The Rexburg Chamber of Commerce invited Melaleuca to move their Freedom Celebration Fireworks to Rexburg in a letter to CEO Frank VanderSloot Thursday.

The following is a letter President/CEO of the Rexburg Chamber of Commerce Ted Austin sent to Frank VanderSloot:

Dear Mr. VanderSloot,

We read with great interest your desire to move the 2017 Melaleuca Freedom Celebration fireworks show from the greenbelt in Idaho Falls for safety reasons. The media coverage mentioned that you had ruled out moving it to Pocatello or Blackfoot. This email is to suggest moving the celebration to REXBURG!

As you most likely know, Rexburg has an awesome Independence Day celebration starting with a parade that begins at Madison Memorial Hospital and travels west down Main Street then turning south onto South 2nd West and ending at the roundabout at 4th south. We have nearly 100 entries and the parade is viewed by nearly 20,000 people. The parade is followed by a “Day in the Park” at Porter Park which features vendor booths and fun activities for families. We are planning to add a car & motorcycle show at Porter Park in 2017 along with an afternoon concert. The festivities currently culminate with the finals of our two night rodeo at the fairgrounds, which always plays to a packed house!

We think it would be fitting to bring your Freedom Celebration to Rexburg where you have a large call center as well as other business interests and investments. Not only would our traditional crowd of thousands attend but you also have access to 18,000 University students. From a safety aspect, the fireworks could be launched from property owned by Madison County north of the fairgrounds, where there is little concern for landing in any residential areas. There would be plenty of parking that could be established for families west of the Rexburg airport and Highway 20. Additional viewing could be located on the Rexburg hill and potentially the parking lots of BYU-Idaho, your alma mater. Both locations would provide for excellent viewing! Traffic would be manageable since the fairgrounds are only five blocks from Highway 20 which provides for easy on and off from either the north or south.

If you would like to discuss this further, the Executive Board of the Rexburg Area Chamber of Commerce would be more than willing to come to Melaleuca’s world headquarters in Idaho Falls to plan your 25th anniversary celebration. Thank you for your consideration!

Ted Austin
President/CEO
Rexburg Area Chamber of Commerce