By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
Red Bank’s Kaboom Fireworks Committee is asking for the public’s help in landing a grant from Liberty Mutual under the insurance giant’s Bring Back The 4th campaign.
The fireworks organizers could bank up to $10,000 to help pay for the annual fireworks display on the Navesink, which doesn’t actually happen on the Fourth of July, but the 3rd; the fourth is the rain date.
Minor detail.
The committee is urging festivalgoers to take a history quiz on Liberty Mutual’s website to bolster its chances to win one of ten $10,000 grants being offered in the contest.
From the insurance provider’s website:
Each completed quiz counts as one credit towards your town. The 10 U.S. towns with the highest level of quiz participation among their residents will be eligible to win grants, divided by small (4 grants), medium (3 grants) and large (3 grants) towns.
The insurer doesn’t define “levels of participation.” Winners will be announced on June 20. The idea behind the promotion is to help restore fireworks to towns that have had to cut back or eliminate their shows because of financial constraints.
The KaBoom show has continued without any cutbacks in recent years, but pulling in more money for the weekend festival, which costs upwards of $250,000 to stage, will help solidify finances for the committee, which has revamped its fundraising model and pulled itself from a financial hole from last year.
Last week, the borough council, at the recommendation of the committee, decided to implement a charge at Riverside Gardens Park for viewers as an experiment to help bolster its fundraising.
