03-04-2025
Rogersville natives step in to organize 4th of July celebration
ROGERSVILLE, Tenn. (WJHL) – The 2025 Rogersville Fourth of July celebration will go on as usual, but this time under new management. Rogersville's own John and Beth Metz will organize the annual event moving forward. This comes after Dr. Blaine Jones and Mark DeWitte stepped down earlier this year.
The Metz said they want to honor the traditions that have been built while also bringing the event back to what it once was.
'Our goal will be to maintain, to do the best that we possibly can this year,' John said. 'But we will definitely be focusing, you know, more long-term to try and do everything we can to get it back to where they had it at one point. So there will be a continuing effort that we're already looking to and hoping for and working towards next year. But we've got 90 days to do the best that we can. So that's going to be difficult. But we're up for the challenge.'
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'We know people are looking forward to it and want this to come off as a success. And we know it's a team effort, as Blaine and Mark have always done, it's not been about them. It's been about the community and the involvement, and we want to continue that tradition.'
As with their predecessors, sponsorship and contributions will be a big priority. Something Beth Metz said they started doing even before officially agreeing to take over the event.
'We started making a list of people we could contact that would either possibly sponsor, be donors or people that would volunteer to help,' Metz said. 'And it kind of started taking a form of its own. And then we really got into talking more specifically with them and then finally just took the plunge and said, 'Hey, I think we'll do this.''
Hawkins County Mayor Mark DeWitte has been involved in organizing the event for decades. He said he hopes the celebration will continue to be about the community.
'It was the one day people would come,' Dewitte said. 'If they couldn't afford a vacation anywhere, it was free and they were all there. We had thousands of people taking a free vacation. We had thousands of people in town, adding to the economy of the town. This community needs something like that to pull everybody together.'
Dr. Blaine Jones told News Channel 11 that he knows the event is in good hands and that he'll be there to help, should they need it.
'We both know them and know that if they say they're going to do something, it's going to get done,' Jones said. 'So, immediately we got the keys and handed them over to them.'
'I'm a phone call away, an email away and will help them keep things rolling. So it wouldn't surprise me at all that here in a few years, we have the big celebration that we once had.'
People can donate to Rogersville's Fourth of July Celebration by mailing to P.O. Box 35, 37857.
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