Mount Pleasant lights up the town with Happy Birthday USA

• PHOTO COURTESY OF THE MOUNT PLEASANT CHAMBER
• Bo Rester and Cole Heffner
• Helicopter flyover during the honoring of veterans
• Mount Pleasant lights up the town with Happy Birthday USA
• Mount Pleasant lights up the town with Happy Birthday USA
• Mount Pleasant lights up the town with Happy Birthday USA
• Mount Pleasant lights up the town with Happy Birthday USA
• Mount Pleasant lights up the town with Happy Birthday USA
• Mount Pleasant lights up the town with Happy Birthday USA
• Mount Pleasant lights up the town with Happy Birthday USA
• Mount Pleasant lights up the town with Happy Birthday USA
• Mount Pleasant lights up the town with Happy Birthday USA
• Mount Pleasant lights up the town with Happy Birthday USA
• Mount Pleasant lights up the town with Happy Birthday USA
• Mount Pleasant lights up the town with Happy Birthday USA
• A veteran receives a special award from Cole Heffner
• Mount Pleasant lights up the town with Happy Birthday USA
• Mount Pleasant lights up the town with Happy Birthday USA
• PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE MOUNT PLEASANT CHAMBER AND COURTNEY BARNETT

By NICOLE KIMBALL nicole@steelcountrybee.com

Fireworks, fun, and freedom. That’s what Independence Day is all about. Mount Pleasant held their 5th Annual Happy Birthday USA celebration on Saturday, June 29, and it drew in crowds from across the county.

The Happy Birthday USA event is put together by the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by Bo Rester’s State Farm Insurance. This event started out in Camp Langston, with this year being the second time it was hosted in town.

Event director for the Chamber, Marifer Zuniga, said it’s been exciting to plan the event every year, “We have amazing sponsors and the community really stepped up to make the fireworks show happen. The city has been great to work with so that we could have it in town.”

The Independence Day event was filled with crowds at Fair Park. Food trucks, vendors, shops, and the live music entertained the day away. A car show and kids’ parade came through and a ceremony to honor military and veterans was held in reverence.

If there was one thing many agreed on, it was that Independence Day will and always be a very important holiday during the year.

Bo Rester explained what it means to him, “It means that I can be in business for myself. I can worship the God of my choice, the religion of my choice, and my neighbor can as well. It means that we have the ability to share our ideas, our opinions, and our values, and live out our dreams because of the freedom that we inherited, because of our servicemen and women that fought for our independence so many years ago, and then all of those that have continued to do that.”

Cole Heffner, state representative for Northeast Texas, echoed similar sentiments, “It means everything. We live in a unique country. We really are special in the world because of our freedom. Our freedom to assemble, our freedom to worship, our freedom to get here like we are today. So yeah, it’s the most important holiday we celebrate.”

“Freedom. Period,” Larry Segrest, a Navy veteran, said. “There’s nothing like the freedom we have. So many died for it and we can’t take it for granted. It should be celebrated, like we’re doing today.”