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Plans Are Being Finalized For Next Weekend’s Fourth of July Celebrations

Ava General Baptist Church will provide shuttle service to the Heart of the Ozarks Fourth of July celebration event next Friday night, June 27. Because parking is limited on the hill at the nursing home, drivers are encouraged to park on the Murphy's lot at bottom of the hill and ride the shuttle which will be running throughout the evening. Additional parking has been secured on the Zane Gray property next to the Murphy's lot, and additional auxiliary parking, and another shuttle, may be added before next week's event. Shuttles will run about every 15 minutes during the event, picking folks up at their car and dropping them off at the front gate of the celebration event.

Details are being worked out and preparations are being made this week for three big Fourth of July Events that have become a tradition in this region.
It all starts next Friday night with the 29th annual Fourth of July Celebration at Heart of the Ozarks Healthcare Center in Ava.
On Saturday night, the 31st annual Squires Picnic and Fourth of July Celebration will be held at the Squires Volunteer Fire Department south of Ava on Highway 5.
Then, closing out the weekend of special events on Sunday, June 29, will be Celebrate America at Highway Church of the Nazarene, north of Ava on Old Highway 5.
The celebration at Heart of the Ozarks seems to get bigger every year, and with parking limited up on the hill, efforts are made to promote off-site parking and use of the shuttle transportation.
Ava General Baptist Church will provide the shuttle service this year from the Murphy lot at the intersection of Highways 5 and 76, just north of the nursing home. The facility has also made arrangements to use the Zane Gray property in the same area, and an additional shuttle bus may be provided by Highway Church of the Nazarene, and other alternative parking may be announced next week.
In recent years, Ava United Methodist Church has also provided bus service when the event is over, to expedite in getting folks back to their cars.
Heart of the Ozarks will include vendor booths, games, inflatables, a silent auction and live entertainment.
Live entertainment will also be part of the program at Squires on Saturday night, with several different local bands scheduled to perform. There will also be rides and kids’ games, concessions and lots of old-fashioned visiting.
The Squires Picnic will conclude with a big fireworks show at 10 p.m.
Live entertainment, kids’ games, inflatables, pony rides and a fish pond are among the activities at Highway Church of the Nazarene’s Celebrate America on Sunday.
Gates for that program open at 5:30 and, in addition to a full meal that can be purchased, there will be free ice cream and homemade cobbler available.
Both Celebrate America and the Heart of the Ozarks programs will conclude with commercial fireworks by AM Pyrotechnics, the people who do the fireworks for the Springfield Cardinals.