Labor Day Parade Threatened By Lack Of Funds

By Nancy K. Crevier

The Budweiser Clydesdales will not be pulling their weight in this year’s Newtown Labor Day Parade after all, but if Newtown residents do not start pulling their own weight, there will not be a parade to watch on September 4 at all, warned Kym Stendahl, Labor Day Parade committee chairperson. As happens year after year, a lack of donations is threatening to bring the parade planning to a screeching halt.

As of Wednesday, July 19, the committee had received donations and pledges totaling less than $7,500. The committee needs at least $20,000 this year to offset costs of the hugely popular parade that winds its way every year from the top of Main Street to Glover Avenue and up Queen Street.

“People may not realize that we have to pay the bands, for instance,” said Ms Stendahl at a meeting of the committee Wednesday evening. “It costs a minimum of $500 and up to $2,000, depending on the organization, to have a band take part in the parade,” she said.

The theme for this year, “Newtown For Wide Open Spaces,” recognizes the wonderful natural resources the town offers its citizens. Pat Barkman, local artist and conservationist, will be the 2006 grand marshal of the Newtown Labor Day Parade, which host dozens of locally created floats and musical entries from all over the region.

Financial support for the 2006 Labor Day Parade is crucial — or the wide open spaces could be all along the parade route.

Send donations to Newtown Savings Bank, Newtown Labor Day Parade, PO Box 497, Newtown CT 06470. Make checks payable to Newtown Labor Day Parade, Inc.