News : IPA members begin spring events, meet at Bar-Y Ranch

Some Class C fireworks on display at the IPA meeting at Bar-Y Ranch...

IPA members met at the Bar-Y Ranch Saturday to begin planning 2013 events.

Kim Lockard demonstrates a black powder tester, used for checking its effectiveness.

Kim Lockard shows IPA members how to make their own black powder.

Boomtown is four and a half months away, but the people who bring it to Vinton are beginning to prepare for the event.

Dozens of Iowa Pyrotechnic Association (IPA) members, including a couple who traveled 350 miles from their home in South Dakota, gathered at the Bar-Y Ranch northeast of Vinton, the guests of Chuck and Marilyn Yedlik. The Yedliks regularly host several IPA events each year; the next will take place Memorial Day weekend.

Following a safety presentation that covered policies ensuring the safety of both the pyrotechnics and their audiences, the members saw a demonstration of how to make black powder, which is used in many of the fireworks.

Kim Lockard of Raymond, the brother of Vinton resident and ACT 1 performer Jill g. Lockard-Bopp, showed IPA members how to effectively and safely make their own black powder.

The members then shared a potluck supper, then waited for dark to shoot for the club the shells they had made in their workshops. Several members also lit some Class C fireworks purchased for the occasion. Chuck Yedlik bought several packages for his grandchildren, who -- with adult supervision -- helped light the fireworks.

Growing membership; many join IPA from other states

Every year, the IPA welcomes new members; every event at the Yedlik farm brings new faces.

One of the newer IPA members is Lewis Dirks, who drove with his wife from their home in South Dakota to camp out in a pull-behind camper at the Bar-Y for the weekend.

Dirks is a Vietnam veteran who describes himself as a "demo man." He served as a Special Forces combat engineer in Vietnam, where he learned to use C-4 and a variety of other explosives.

A lifelong fireworks enthusiast, Dirks said that after 9/11, it became much more difficult and expensive to buy fireworks. He had been looking for some organization to join when he met IPA member Tom Pingenot at a couple of events. Tom encouraged him to join the IPA. Dirks has also joined other groups, but has not yet found one in his home state.

One of the benefits of IPA membership, said Dirks, is that the cost of membership dues and convention fees is more than offset by the lower price of the fireworks he can buy at IPA events.

Boomtown is scheduled for August 23-24.