Champaign community comes together for Freedom Celebration, fireworks

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WCIA) — Despite the early rain on the Fourth of July, people in Champaign still enjoyed a celebration for the holiday.

This year’s Champaign County Freedom Celebration supported the CU Autism Network by making sensory zones that allowed everybody to enjoy the day.

The celebration started just outside Memorial Stadium Thursday evening. Grange Grove was filled with food trucks, live music on stage and good times celebrating the Star-Spangled Banner.

Many in the crowd were patiently waiting for one thing:

“I’m ready for the big fireworks,” said one watcher.

“Here just for some good times — fireworks, Fourth of July,” said another.

“Fireworks. We started when I was a little boy here. And it’s become a tradition,” Cliff Wygant said. “We come, we bring some snacks and we watch fireworks.”

Wygant said the fireworks in town have always been a blast.

“When I started way back in the ’60s, we were in the stadium at the time and it was so loud and so wonderful and just so much fun,” he added.

Cliff’s wife Renee Wygant said watching the fireworks has been a special long-standing tradition for their family.

“Our son, he enjoyed the parade,” Renee Wygant said. “We’d come to the Champaign parade and then we would come back for the fireworks and see those. And he’s like us; he always likes the fireworks and the parades. So, you know, we did that as the kids were growing up no matter where we lived.”

Sitting right in front of the Wygants was the Jordan family.

“Family traditions,” Matt Jordan said. “And my mind went straight to our family cottage that we go up to usually for the Fourth of July. This year, we’ve got a 3-month-old, so we’re not going up there and so we’re looking for something local to do.”

They were looking to create their own Fourth of July memories with their son Oliver.

“Happy to see that it looks like it was new this year. And as long as the kids’ stuff stays, the bouncy houses and the bubble situation over there, it was a nice surprise. Yeah, that kind of stuff is just a lot of fun to do,” Katie Jordan said.

Families old and young all came together to celebrate the similarities that unite us all.

“You won’t see arguments, you won’t see yelling,” Cliff Wygant said. “You know, for this day and age, people always lay it down and just say, ‘Wait a minute, we’re here to celebrate.’ And they do.”

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCIA.com.