Completing A Decade Of Parade Planning

By Steve Bigham

It was the spring of 1992 and talk around town centered on the growing possibility that the town’s annual Labor Day Parade was about to go the way of the annual fireworks show… kaput.

Previous parade organizers Pat Denlinger, Judy Furlotte, Joanne Molden, and Cathy Andrews were hoping to pass on the torch and there did not appear to be anyone willing to step up to take their place. After a 30-year run, the parade march looked like it might be stopped in its tracks. Another summer tradition in Newtown was in jeopardy. One newspaper headline read, “Rain Finally Falls On Newtown’s Parade.”

But along came Kym Stendahl, the mother of a four-month-old daughter, who took it upon herself to give the parade a future. She successfully solicited the help of friend Nancy Riddle and her Head O’ Meadow neighbors and the group acted quickly to get things rolling again.

“I grew up in Brookfield and was now living in Newtown, and I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’ve been going to the parade since I was a little girl. What’s Labor Day in Newtown without a parade?’ I wanted my children to enjoy it too,” she recalled this week. “I figured I was in marketing, I should be able to pull off a parade.”

And that she did, and with the help of others, has been doing so ever since. This year, Kym Stendahl celebrates her 10th year as parade chairman and she still gets goose bumps when she hears the beat of the Newtown High School marching band as it makes its way down Main Street.

The theme of the 1992 parade was aptly titled “Let’s Have a Parade.”

“The whole idea was there was not going to be a parade and then we decided we were going to do this and it was ‘let’s have a parade,’” Kym explained.

As it turned out, it did in fact rain on Newtown’s parade (for the first time in 30 years), but Kym was all smiles that morning. In fact, hearing the sound of the high school band kick things off that year remains her most memorable moment.

“I remember standing in the ambulance garage and hearing the drums beating from the NHS band. I remember saying to myself, ‘Okay, we did it,’” Kym recalled this week.

Parade co-chairman Lisa Franze joined the parade committee a couple of years later and has been with Kym ever since. Also on this year’s parade committee are Brian Amey of Fleet Bank, Anne Marie DeWeese, Helen Seferi, and Dale Meyer.

Under the direction of the Stendahl/Franze team, the Labor Day Parade seems to get bigger and better with each passing year. And there do not appear to be any signs of burnout.

“When you see everyone just sitting there in their lawn chairs and their kids are laughing, that’s all you need to motivate you to keep doing this,” Kym said.

Kym and the rest of the parade committee will be riding the route September 3. Be sure to give them a cheer. There would be no parade without them.