Fourteen months of planning and event execution culminated with a check presentation Thursday night that exceeded every goal Dave Gasker set when he first started organizing Jim Thorpe’s America 250 celebration.

The Jim Thorpe 250th Committee delivered $3,171.08 to the Jim Thorpe Fire Department, joined by donations from three local social clubs and a $1,000 check from the Jim Thorpe Lions Club; pushing the combined total to more than $5,000 for the borough’s volunteer firefighters.

Borough Council marked the occasion by presenting Gasker with a formal proclamation, signed by Council President Connor Rodgers and Mayor Eric Cinicola, recognizing him as the driving force behind the planning, organization and direction of the borough’s 250 events.

“Thank you for the proclamation,” Gasker said. “I really appreciate it, but it’s not necessary. The whole 250 thing was very important to me, and I just felt it was the right thing to do for the town.”

The money raised far surpassed the committee’s original ambitions. Gasker said when the group was about six months out from the events, he suggested they set a financial goal.

“We agreed on $1,000,” Gasker said. “I said, if we can pull this off successfully and get the fire department $1,000, we did alright.”

In the end, $4,171.08 came from his committee alone — $3,171.08 directly from the committee, plus $250 from the Jim Thorpe Sportsmen’s Club, $250 from the Mauch Chunk Rod and Gun Club and $500 from the Jim Thorpe Community Athletic Association. The Lions Club added $1,000 on top of that.

Gasker also drew attention to a contribution that doesn’t show up in any check — the Fairview Social Club’s standing practice of providing weekly pizzas to the fire department on Monday operations nights.

“If you tallied up the amount that they provide to the Jim Thorpe Fire Department, it’s well over $2,000 a year,” Gasker said. “So thank you, Fairview Hose Company Social Club.”

He was emphatic that every dollar behind the celebration came from within the community.

“This event was totally, totally funded by fundraisers, merchandise sales, local individuals, local social clubs, and businesses that stepped forward to help,” Gasker said. “We did not get any moneys from government-sponsored agencies, government-sponsored committees, politicians, or any special America 250 committee using taxpayers’ money. This was all us, and we’re very proud of that fact.”

Gasker acknowledged that the project drew skeptics from the start.

“Throughout the course of the 14 months of planning for this event, I heard many negative comments — no fireworks for the Fourth of July event, you’ll never pull it off, you’ll need more than one venue, it’ll become overrun by tourists,” he said. “The naysayers had their say, and they were all wrong.”

He accepted the proclamation not on his own behalf but on behalf of the volunteers who made the events run; those who flipped burgers in the heat, set up and cleaned up facilities, sold tickets, handled logistics and gave money of their own.

Beyond the fundraising, Gasker called on the borough to restore Memorial Hall and Memorial Park to their historic role as community gathering places, and challenged the social clubs that worked together during the 250 celebration to keep that collaboration going.

He also offered what he called an average Joe’s view of a town he sees as increasingly divided between those who benefit from tourism and those who are rooted in its history as a working-class community.

“As a taxpayer, I challenge the borough to work with residents to maintain our hometown feeling,” Gasker said. “To consider those that do not benefit financially from the tourist trade. To consider those that want to raise families in a safe and well-structured environment.”

Jim Logue, president of the Lions Club, spoke after Gasker and thanked borough staff for their support of the organization’s Fourth of July picnic at Memorial Hall. The Lions raised $935.49 through the event and rounded up to a $1,000 donation to the fire department.

“We had the same goals,” Logue said of the committee’s mission. “We just all fit in really well together with what we’re doing.”