Cedar Rapids Weather
Family Turns Fireworks Into Booming BusinessKCCI.com
DES MOINES, Iowa - In July of 1991, Kevin McClain and his wife Julie moved to Illinois and witnessed one of the dullest firework displays that they had ever seen. Little did they know that it would spark something inside of their minds.
"The display was so sad, there was so much time between each individual shell and it was boring! Kevin and I looked at each other and said ‘We can do better than this and we don’t even know what it’s all about!’” said Julie. The McClain’s decided to join the Illinois display team, learn all about the pyrotechnic business and stayed there for eight years. “They were really sad to see us leave,” Julie said. They brought their son and their belongings to central Iowa and continued to do business through J & M Displays but made a new name for themselves with the company called ‘Dynasty Shooting Team.’ But this isn’t your typical team or work place. Their business is made up of all family members ranging from brothers, sisters, cousins and spouses of all ages. "We get to spend the day together, in a way that most families don’t spend the holidays,” said Julie. After performing almost twenty times a year, in 1999 the McClain’s were asked to come to one of the biggest Fourth of July events known in Iowa. “J & M had an opening for a shoot team to do Yankee Doodle Pops, asked us if we wanted to do it and we’ve been there ever since,” said Kevin. It takes the family a little over eight hours to set up the downtown display on the Grand Avenue Bridge and they shoot off almost 500 shells in fewer than 15 minutes. With helpful cues from the Des Moines Symphony, the McClain’s know when to flip the hundreds of switches to make the lights match the music. As for this year, Kevin said we can expect the sky to stay lit the entire show with few breaks in between and some of the brightest colored fireworks that they could find. The Des Moines Symphony will be celebrating their 75th anniversary this year. The Yankee Doodle Pops celebration starts Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. |
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