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Zachary Rodriguez squinted his eyes toward the sky and was awestruck when five parachutists spun around in the air with pink smoke trailing them before they landed in the middle of Sugden Regional Park.

He was seeing a demonstration by the U.S. Special Operations Command Parachute Team, USSOCOM, for the first time and knows he will be doing the same thing someday.

"I'll do it as soon as my dad takes me," the 9-year-old said. "Maybe when I'm 15."

His father, Emilio Rodriguez, served with the 101st Airborne Division until 1989 and has no problem with his son learning how to parachute as he once did.

"I'd like to do it with him before I get too old," said the elder Rodriguez, who is now fire chief with Isles of Capri Fire Department.

The family was among the first to arrive at Sugden for the 11th annual Naples Jaycees Fourth of July celebration, where a team from the USSOCOM has always put on a show with a jump, usually at 4 p.m.

The five parachutists intended to jump at 12,500 feet from a Black Hawk helicopter, but had to come down to 4,500 feet because of clouds, said U.S. Army Col. Kirk Knight, one of the parachutists.

LEXEY SWALL-BOBAY / Daily News

Naples resident Linton Harris, 5, makes a splash into a wading pool filled with plastic balls and water at the bottom of a water slide during the eighth annual July Fourth Festival on Tuesday afternoon at Sugden Park in East Naples. The event was put on by the Naples Jaycees and included a sky dive by the U.S. Special Operations Command Parachute Team from Tampa, Mr. and Miss Firecracker contests and fireworks.

The five handed out picture cards and autographed them for the dozen or more kids who watched. The 26-member team is stationed at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa and does shows all over the state with large audiences but a group always comes to Sugden, said Melissa Burch, whose husband, Col. Andrew Burch, was one of the parachutists Tuesday. He's with the Army's Special Forces Operation.

"All of these guys are deployed," she said. "My husband just got back from Iraq last week. Doing this (show) gives people a chance to see what these guys do and to appreciate what they do."

"It's great talking to the kids," her husband added. "Maybe we recruit a few."

Twelve-year-old Naomi Farkas, who lives in Tampa, has joined a Civil Air Patrol group for kids and plans to learn how to parachute in a few years, said her father, Andrew Farkas, who is one of the team members, but he didn't jump Tuesday at the park.

"I can jump at 16," she says.

"It's pretty cool," said 13-year-old Keri Reisinger, of Naples. "I like how they were spinning around in the air."

Besides the parachute team, the Sugden celebration included live performances from three local groups, food from Foxboro's restaurant and music from local radio stations.

The gates opened shortly before 4 p.m., but the crowd started coming a few hours later for the fireworks show at 9 p.m. Usually 10,000 or more people come out for the fireworks, said Lisa Douglass, with the Jaycees. Naples Trolley provided free shuttle service from the Collier County Government Complex for the public.

Micheline Previlon, of Naples, brought her three daughters to the park in the late afternoon for the live entertainment and for the fireworks.

"Usually we go to the (Naples) Pier but there's more stuff to do here," she said. "The kids like the manmade beach" at Lake Avalon.

A bounce house and bounce water slide with a minipool at the bottom was popular among the 5-year-old crowd and one 25-year-old, James Willhite, of Bonita Springs.

"My niece wouldn't go if I didn't go," he said. "It's a lot more fun than it looks. I'm probably too big. I flew down and hit the bottom."