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January 1, 2002Cadillac's new year a family affair- An estimated 8,000 gather to welcom 2002 with fireworks, magic, art and activitiesBy MIKE NORTONRecord-Eagle staff writer CADILLAC - It was past sundown, and Gene and Donita Longworthy were leading their boys - Daniel, 10, and Ray, 8 - through the halls of Cadillac High School in search of a magician. They'd already seen the fireworks and the masked procession along the shore of the lakes. And even though everyone had been praising the show put on in the auxiliary gym by magician Gene Anderson ("He does more with newspaper than a kennel full of Great Dane pups!") it was doubtful whether those little eye would be able to stay open until midnight. "It was that big soccer ball that wore us all out," said Gene. "They had a game with this huge ball out on the field, and we knocked it around for an hour or so this afternoon." All around them, hundreds of Cadillac-area residents and visitors of all ages were milling through the school and its environs on Monday for the city's third annual First Night celebration. It's an alcohol-free celebration of the New Year devoted to the arts, community togetherness and family fun. From 1 p.m. to midnight, participants could choose among over 100 performances and activities - dramas, concerts, demonstrations, sleigh rides, even chestnut-roasting and genealogical research. Cadillac is one of 180 communities in the United States, Canada, New Zealand and England that conduct First Night celebrations on the night of Dec. 31. (In fact, it was one of three cities mentioned in an article about First Night in the most recent issue of Reader's Digest.) The tradition began in Boston in 1976, when a group of local artists decided to create an alcohol-free alternative to traditional New Year's Eve celebrations. Cadillac joined in 2000 as part of its celebration of the new millennium. The only other two communities in Michigan that have First Night celebrations are Birmingham and Port Huron. Attendance during that first celebration was particularly large, said Sue Anderson, secretary of the Cadillac First Night board of directors. But this year's may have been even higher - perhaps as high as 8,000 - thanks to good weather and the let's-stick-together atmosphere that has settled over America in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks. "I think people decided they'd want to spend the holiday closer to home, with family and friends," said Anderson. "Besides, this year we've got real food in addition to the free pop, so people don't have to go home to eat." The festivities here began in City Park with the taking of a "community photo" at 1 p.m., followed by the ringing of bells from most of the town's church steeples - which continued at regular intervals through the afternoon and evening. From then on, it was up to visitors whether to amble over to Kodiak's Coffeehouse to listen to the Doggone Cowboys, go ice bowling at the city shuffleboard courts or head for the junior high school cafeteria to construct hats, masks and noisemakers for the 5 p.m. processional along Chestnut Street. The procession ended at Rotary Pavilion with a show whose participants acted out a play dressed as African animals. African themes predominated at this year's First Night - from the jester-like minsiki figure featured on the festival logo to the "community mural" being painted in the high school corridor under the watchful eye of art teacher Kathy Mills, whose fifth-grade students prepared the three-panel canvas ahead of time. Mills' work featured Egyptian hieroglyphics, colorful South African geometric designs, and a series of seven West African akua-ba figurines - one for each of Earth's seven continents. "We had so much devoted to music and dance, and we wanted to celebrate the visual arts in a way that people could participate in," she said. "I drew the design in pencil and my fifth-graders painted the outlines in black and white, and then the people who come by can color them in, in any color they chose." Fireworks were launched over Lake Cadillac at 6 p.m. (to welcome in the New Year at Stockholm, Sweden and Cadillac, France) and at midnight, when participants joined in a "pep rally for the New Year" in the high school football stadium. "We have such a sense of community in Cadillac anyway," said activities director Lois Strzynski. "Even though this is a pretty big town, it still has a small-town feel at times like this. You get that sense of friendliness and hospitality that other places have lost." |
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