Community Corner

33rd Annual Great Bonac Fireworks At Three Mile Harbor Set For Saturday

This year's fireworks will honor Concetta, Jimmy and Felix Grucci, Sr. and fireworks founder George Plimpton.

The Great Bonac Firework Show, held by the Clamshell Foundation, is set to go off this Saturday, July 20.

A thirty-three-year-old tradition, the fireworks will be launched at Three Mile Harbor, starting at 9:20 p.m.  The best viewing locations for the event are Sammy’s Beach, Maidstone Park, Gann Road, any of the beaches off Hands Creek Road or Springy Banks Road, and at the head of Three Mile Harbor itself. In the event of rain, the fireworks will be postponed until Sunday, July 21.

Started by George Plimpton, writer and founder of the Paris Review, in 1970, the fireworks take place every year the Saturday after Bastille day— the French independence celebration marking the end of the Ancien Regime monarchy. The fireworks became a public event in 1980, with proceeds raised going toward the camp, Boys and Girls Harbor.

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The Clamshell Foundation, founded in 1992, is a non-profit organization that gives 100 percent of its profits from events to local people, programs and projects in the Town of East Hampton. In years past, recipients have included: The East Hampton Dory Rescue Squad, Toys for Tots, the Red Cross, local food pantries, shellfish programs and annual environmental education scholarships to East Hampton High School students.

When it was no longer possible to continue the Three Mile Harbor fireworks, the Clamshell foundation took over the tradition in 2009.

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Fireworks will be provided by Grucci Fireworks, a fifth-generation, family-owned and operated Long Island company which designs, produces, and displays over 300 performances annually all around the world. Their past shows include seven consecutive presidential inaugurations, four Olympics, and the largest fireworks show ever produced which marked the opening of the Palm Jumeirah in Dubai.

Felix Grucci, Sr. who partnered with George Plimpton on the fireworks as far back as 1980, will be among those honored in this years show, along with his wife Concetta and their son Jimmy Grucci, and Plimpton himself.

For more information, call the Clamshell Foundation: 324-6250


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