As Melissa Deimeke ticks off the long list of volunteers who help pull together Laddonia’s annual 4th of July event, as well as this year’s sesquicentennial celebration, it almost seems as if the undertaking is effortless.

Concession stands need to be staffed. FFA chapters from Van-Far and Community R-6 schools are happy to fill in. Come up with the idea for a children’s fun zone and POET biofuels doesn’t hesitate to take the lead. Organizing a fast pitch tournament, a pie contest, even laying gravel to improve lanes around the softball field — all are handled readily.

But Deimeke quickly dismisses the notion that July’s two day event honoring the community and the nation is a simple task.

“I have a lot of good people who volunteer, but it takes a lot of planning,” she said.

The team is still working on finishing touches, such as who to install as grand marshal and where to set a commemorative sesquicentennial monument — “my sister calls it a boulder,” Deimeke reported with a laugh — but the rest of the festive lineup has been set.

It starts on July 3, a Saturday, with the annual Honor Flight breakfast and a 5K run that is a new feature. It wraps up on Sunday night with the popular fireworks show, which this year promises to be bigger than ever.

The Laddonia Missouri Athletic Association spent almost $24,000 on fireworks alone, purchasing the largest explosives available.

In all there are more than 35 different events over the two day span.

New for this special celebration is the POET Fun Zone, an area of inflatable that includes the usual and unusual. Also new is the color run for children, the pie contest organized by Laddonia Lunch Ladies, a watermelon eating contest and something called the Brothers of the Brush competition.

“They did that during the centennial,” Deimeke said of the multi-category beard contest.

The list of events borrows from Laddonia’s centennial festivities. Dresses used 50 years ago will adorn some of the queen candidates. The Little Mr. and Miss has been restored to its Cuties Contest designation.

Deimeke had a suitcase handed down from a relative, Jack Folta, that contained notes used by the people planning the 1971 event.

But she also gleaned ideas from a 1928 list of student activities at the old school, games such as egg and spoon and snatch the handkerchief which are easy to imagine, as well as fruit basket.

For the rules of that one will have to wait until July 3 at 5 p.m., when 1928 Schoolhouse Games kick off.

As in the past there will be rides for the kids, vendors, a craft show, volleyball and softball, the book walk, live entertainment, the Independence Day parade and awards presentations.

Because the fourth falls on a Sunday, an interfaith community worship service begins the second day.

“I remember that as a kid,” Deimeke said.

There is a routine to the planning effort, a timeline of when to send out sponsor letters, when to seek umpires for the softball tournament and such. This year, Deimeke also consulted with organizers of the Perry sesquicentennial, who shared which ideas worked and which fell flat.

“It’s different towns supporting each other,” she said. “That’s what we have to do.”