By Lynda ThullenVisalia Week
Last year David and Paula Mueller spent the Fourth of July entertaining their family in their backyard.
This year the Muellers are entertaining all of Visalia with a community Independence Day
celebration.
Today's activities will include a fire department open house, public safety demonstrations, an ice cream "freeze-off," a craft fair, and concession stands. The finale
will be a ground and aerial fireworks show, which the Muellers are funding through their company, Valley Staffing Services.
The Muellers didn't start out intending to be the "fireworks people," as
they're now known. They just wanted to run one of the
city's fireworks booths.
"We found out there was a 10-year waiting list," Paula Mueller said. "One day our accountant was walking through and said `Why
don't you put fireworks back in the bowl?´"
The bowl meant Sunkist Stadium, where the city had hosted an annual fireworks show until four years ago when it was dropped because of the cost.
So the Muellers went to Visalia Unified School District officials, who donated use of the stadium. They also contacted city officials, who showed them how much they had spent to put on the [event].
"I thought there was no way we can afford fireworks," Paula Mueller said.
So she put together a sales pitch to seek sponsors, and asked her husband if she could
try it out on him. Her pitch was so good, he decided to be the sponsor.
"I'll be the person," David Mueller said.
"I'll do it."
Not only that, but he offered to fund the show for the next five years.
Once the fireworks funding was secured, the rest of the preparations began taking shape.
Paula is chairing the committee of 15 people that is organizing the Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular.
"Lots of people were anxious to get this going again," she said.
The committee members had dozens of ideas. "We had to narrow it down," Paula said. "The first year we need to work out the kinks.
We'll get bigger as we go along."
The Muellers have recruited several major sponsors to offset costs other than the fireworks. All proceeds will go to the Visalia Unified School District.
The celebration gets under way today at Fire Station No. 1, at Johnson Street and Mineral King Avenue. The station will have an open house and equipment demonstrations
throughout the day. Firefighters also are serving a tri-tip lunch.
At 5 p.m. the craft fair and ice cream freeze-off begin at the Redwood High School practice
field. At 7, Sunkist Stadium will open, where concession stands will sell food and drink. All of the food was donated, so the non-profit groups running the stands will get all of the proceeds.
Then at dusk, the main event begins. The Muellers´ son, Dolan, will start things off by pressing a plunger that triggers cannon fire and the first fireworks. Dolan, 3, will be dressed as Uncle Sam.
David Mueller is in charge of the fireworks, which will be provided by Pyro-Spectaculars Inc. of Rialto. The company has supplied fireworks for Disneyland, Disney World and the last two Olympic Games.
David has worked closely with the company in designing the show, which will be choreographed to the music and the cannons.
"We wanted to make it as special as we could possibly make it this year," he said.
"We've got some really special music.
It's more of a pyro-musical."
The show will feature ground displays in the stadium as well as aerial fireworks. An
American flag made of fireworks will rise 100 feet off the ground.
The Muellers have juggled planning the show while running their growing business,
Valley Staffing Services. The company, which they founded six years ago, supplies temporary employees in the areas of clerical, light industry, accounting, bookkeeping and
other fields. They have offices in Visalia, Bakersfield, Fresno,
Modesto, Bakersfield and Las Vegas..
The Muellers´ staff in Visalia field calls daily about the Fourth of July Spectacular, and
they are expecting a full house — more than 7,500 people — at Sunkist stadium tonight when the first fireworks light the sky.
