Em-Kayan show worthy of fireworks recognition

It is not often that a residential neighborhood puts on a firework show worthy of recognition, but for the Em-Kayan Village that is definitely the case.

The Em-Kayan firework show started six years ago with only a couple hundred dollars worth of fireworks. To light the fireworks, someone would run around, separately lighting each fuse.

Now, the show contains almost $3,000 of fireworks, and a single-light fuse.

“It is very special,” said Pat McGregor, who is in charge of going door-to-door for donations. “Its pretty spectacular.”

McGregor walks around the neighborhood, asking people to give whatever they can afford.

It is a way to give back,” McGregor said. “Nobody closes the door on me.”

McGregor said some of the families that donate large sums of money are  

usually throwing a Fourth of July party at their house.

The fireworks spectacle is in honor of Jerry Nielson, an 88-year-old  

WWII veteran, whose birthday lies on July 3. Nielson’s grandson, Rick  

Nielson, owns Big Kid fireworks and helps put on the fireworks show.

Rick Nielson began doing a fireworks show for his grandfather just at  

his house.

“This show is for (him),” Rick Nielson said. “He is my rock.”

When it comes to lighting the fuse, McGregor always picks someone out  

of the audience. Once lit, fireworks explode in the air for around 45  

minutes.

“We started this thing because we didn’t want people to have to come  

back with the people who had been drinking in Troy,” McGregor said.  

“It is in the middle of our park, the middle of the community.”

Art Pankey, a 62-year-old resident in Em-Kayan, said the event has  

grown every year.

“We live in the forest, and it was a way for the kids to have a  

firework show in a safe way,” Pankey.

Parachutes are also shot off for the kids.

But when it comes down to it, McGregor said Fourth of July is just a  

celebration of the United States-and Montana.

“This is a Montana thing - and I’m from California,” said McGregor,  

who is a retired Los Angeles firefighter, of the Em-Kayan Village  

fireworks show. “It is pretty amazing.”