We need your help! We have raised 50% of our goal! Please Donate today if you love the fireworks!

Thanks to your incredible generosity, we’ve reached 50% of our fundraising goal for the fireworks show!

DONATE Here TODAY!
or donate in PayPal

or mail a check to: Box 55385 Virginia Beach, VA 23471

WE NEED DONATIONS from Jill Doczi:

“Please know that you support our community fireworks celebration through donations to the show. Active participation in your community provides events like these for you, your friends and family to enjoy. Thank you for your support.”

Organizing communities: Baylake Pines and Ocean Park (including Pelican Dunes, Chesapeake House, Bay Vista, 3556 on the Bay, Aeries on the Bay, Water Oaks tand Three Ships Landing). Additional communities like CXB help through donations and we thank them for their support.

To receive updates make sure you email communication@opcl.org.
Additional information on the OPCL website at www.opcl.org

Secure credit card through Cheddar Up or PayPal:

PayPal:

Cheddar Up:

Check: “OPCL Fireworks” and mail to:
OPCL, Fireworks
P.O. Box 55385

Costs have gone up and will continue to go up with all the bridge construction and tariffs. Your donation is appreciated!

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🇺🇸 Hey Neighbors: You 🛺 are 🚲 Invited to 🛴the 🇺🇸 July 🗽4th 🧑🏼‍🦼Parade! 🇺🇸

Listen to Uncle Sam! We start lining up at 9:30!

Make plans to decorate yourself, your dogs, beach carts, skateboards, scooters, bicycles, etc. and join the community for a patriotic celebration of our country’s independence. The July 4th Ocean Park parade will start at 10:00 on July 4th at the Surry – Albermarle intersection. We will start lining up at 9:30! Look for Uncle Sam to give directions!

We have a generous donation of popsicles from Lauren Harrington to be given out at the end of the parade! Thank you Lauren!

A word of caution: Ocean Park is not an approved golf cart community so only DMV licensed golf carts driven by licensed drivers are legal: use your own judgement about participating if you are not street legal. Ocean Park is not a designated golf cart community

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Fireworks 💥 History Part 2!

Photo Credit: Chris Giersch

From our Fireworks master Jill Doczi comes the second installment of how the Independence Day Fireworks funded by individual contributions came about:

“July 2011: Our first authorized show in 2010, organized by our Ocean Park Civic League president, Rick Mercadante, was a huge hit. In his words,“We started the summer by celebrating our nation’s birth with a fantastic fireworks display that exceeded all expectations. I was proud of the way our neighborhood came together in a grassroots effort to make this happen. What a great country to live in, and even better,what a great neighborhood we live in.“

Rick’s accomplishment set the ball in motion for our new, safer tradition, and it did indeed accomplish the goal of curbing the night-long illegal fireworks along our beach. However, at the end of his commitment to our country, he received his final call — to Djibouti. Before he left, Rick asked me to take on his project. If someone didn’t keep it rolling, we wouldn’t have a fireworks celebration of our country’s independence anymore on our beach.

As a child, fireworks seemed magical to me. The anticipation of the explosions followed by the surprise of colorful displays were a once-a-year treat in Roanoke if we were lucky enough to have someone drive us downtown, find parking, squeeze into bleachers with thousands of others and watch our city display over a football field. At the time Rick asked me, I had small children who had only ever known the un-hassled Independence Day tradition of walking down to the beach with family and friends to watch fireworks with reflections on the water and the sound of waves as the backdrop to our “Ooooos” and “Ahhhhhs.” I wanted them to grow up with those memories. I agreed with hesitation. Little did we know, this would be a learning year.”

Donate: www.opcl.org

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⚓️ LBR Report : June 19-22

Mike Parkman from Parks and Rec gives details here

 Parks and Recreation staff share weekly updates regarding weekend activity at the Lynnhaven Boat Ramp (LBR):

Friday, June 19 –        40 total launches, car parking did not fill. The overflow lot was not used. We did not have to close using the barricades at any time. Even though the Sail 250 parade of sails was this day, the weather was rainy in the morning with some winds.

Saturday, June 20 –     173 total launches, car parking did fill up around 10am and was full most of day. The overflow lot was used for approximately 29 vehicles with trailers. We continue to be limited on parking in overflow due to soft sand. We did close the facility to trucks and trailers around 9:00am using the barricades. VBPD was notified around 9:15am that the ramp was closed to trucks and trailers. All signage was changed at that time to indicate we were full.  

Sunday, June 21 –       188 total launches, car parking did fill up around 10:00am and there was limited available parking throughout the day. The overflow lot was used for approximately 33 vehicles with trailers We did have to close the facility and barricade operations were implemented around 9:50am. VBPD was notified that the ramp was closed to trucks and trailers. All signage was changed at that time to indicate we were full.  We did have a couple officers come through the facility and the neighborhood.

Incidents to report:

On Sunday around 3:45pm, EMS and Fire responded to a 911 call from a boater coming into the ramp from the water with injuries and was taken to the hospital.

Notes:

The VBPD summer beach patrols have started and officers on ATV are also riding through our facility and talking to staff regarding any issues.

We have started a Text Alert for when the boat ramp is full. As of today, 159 people have opted in to receive the alerts. When the boat ramp is full staff will send a message to the ECCS watch desk and they will send an alert text notifying those people that the ramp is full at that time. A follow-up text will then be sent when we re-open. Please see attached flyer.

Parking Enforcement:

Total Citation Count: 55

Total Read Count:      497    (this is the number of vehicles scanned during enforcement visits)

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What 🛶 Kayak Launch? Public Input Welcome for 🌱 PHP Kayak Launch Planning

An ADA compliant public kayak launch has been a part of the Pleasure House Point plans since its acquisition and preservation in 2012. This is the Pleasure House Point Management Plan which details the history and extensive planning for this area. The wetlands restoration envisioned in the plan was postponed for some time but is now complete.

There have been references on and off to the kayak launch project and all recently at a spring 2026 BAC meeting. We were assured ample public engagement was planned. That process has now begun with the Open House scheduled by the city for July 27th from 6- 7:30 pm at the Bayside Rec Center. Concept Plans for the launch project will be presented at that meeting and public input is sought and appreciated.

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How Can I Find Out if the LBR is Open or Full? Text Alert now Available!

Are you wondering if you will be able to launch at the LBR? Now you can send a quick text and find out if it is full or open! Text boatramp to 67283 and you can get that information!

Mike Parkman from CoVB Parks and Rec explains: ” Residents we have heard you. I was here a few weeks ago discussing our new digital signs on Shore Drive that alert people when the boat ramp is full. We had a lot of comments and we have heard you and starting today if you text boat ramp to 67283 you will be subscribing to a new text alert system that when our boat ramp is full we’ll be able to send that text out to everybody. It will say the boat ramp is closed as of ? pm and will reopen at ? pm. One thing to keep in mind is that it won’t be a one for one. We’re going to do a block of time so there may be 10 spots so we can get people off the road quicker.

We have a lot of issues with people when we are closed trying to maneuver their boats and trailers through the neighborhood. We hope this system will help people understand sooner and not turn off Shore Drive because once you turn off Shore Drive into the small narrow neighborhood roads it poses a safety issue for people driving the vehicles and for the residents in the neighborhood.” Know before you go! video here.

When the LBR lot is full: it is closed and not available for drop off
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The Story Behind the Ocean Park Fireworks: Part 1!

Any amount is welcome!

Please donate! Jill Doczi tells the story of how our fireworks show came about:

In the past, neighbors celebrated the day of our nation’s independence starting at sundown and continuing into the early morning hours with their own fireworks on the beaches. From Little Creek Amphibious Base to First Landing State Park, we had a stunning array of light and sound from everything between small sparklers and thousands-of-dollars mini-shows, all illegal, but impressive as a whole for a community.

Over the years, the word spread, and people from outside the community flocked to participate. Sometimes those people showed up a little under-the-influence, excited to share their self-taught pyrotechnic skills. Sometimes they didn’t care as much about the safety of neighbors and sometimes they didn’t have the skills they thought they did — resulting errant shots into dry dune grass, onto roofs and into crowds. Hundreds of fireworks shooting in all directions up and down the beach did start to resemble a war movie.

In 2009, we experienced the Great Fireworks Crackdown. Due to some serious safety issues from the previous year, the city launched a very militant effort to stop the illegal use of fireworks on the Fourth of July along the Shore Drive beaches. In addition to increased beach patrols, they staged police and fire marshal staff at every access entrance. They checked coolers, bags and buggies for explosives and meted out severe penalties. It worked. Fireworks celebrations of Independence Day appeared to have ended on our beaches.

The community realized that maybe it had gotten out-of-hand and unsafe, but we weren’t willing to give up the tradition. How could we celebrate our country in the same patriotic way that centuries of Americans before us have, while not setting each other and our neighborhoods on fire?

In 2010, our then civic league president, Rick Mercadante, proposed we raise funds for a professional show. The city agreed. Word-of-mouth and a loan from the civic league launched our first authorized fireworks show in July 2010.

Donate: www.opcl.org

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