Marchers Line Up For This Year’s Labor Day Parade

By Jan Howard

It’s almost time to get those marching shoes ready, and if your group always marches in Newtown’s annual Labor Day parade but you haven’t made a commitment for this year, it’s time to get on the phone to sign up.

 Plans are nearing completion for Newtown’s major summer event, the 39th annual Labor Day Parade on September 4. The parade’s theme is “Newtown – History in the Making,” and in keeping with the theme, Dan Cruson, the town’s historian, will serve as grand marshal.

Newtown Summer Festival Committee co-chairs Lisa Franze and Kym Stendahl and members Lynda McDow, Dale Meier, Brian Amey, Lana Patane, and Ann Marie DeWeese are hard at work putting the finishing touches on the parade, one of the largest in the Northeast.

They’re hoping for better weather this year than last, but Ms McDow said, “Rain doesn’t dampen the spirit. Everybody was drenched last year, but nobody cared.”

The committee members also want to remind everyone that they are always looking for new members to help out and urge residents to come forth to help out next year.

About 2,000 marchers usually participate in the parade and thousands more watch. It has been said, in jest, that half the town’s population marches in the parade and the other half watches. The numbers of marchers will probably be higher this year. It’s an election year, and it can be expected that several local and state politicians will be in the line of march on Labor Day. Members of local political parties and the Green Party already plan to attend.

“There is quite an interest in Joe Lieberman,” Ms McDow said. “Everyone wonders if he will come.”

Marching bands, local organizations, youth groups, and floats are always encouraged to participate in the parade, and this year is no exception, according to Ms McDow.

But to be listed in the parade program and in the line of march printed in The Newtown Bee, local groups must contact Ms McDow by August 21 regarding their intention to participate in the parade. “I need people to start calling me,” she said. “If you have always been in the parade and you haven’t responded, you need to get on the phone. You need to call by the 21st.”

Ms McDow can be reached by calling 426-2664.

Because the committee wants everyone to be involved in the parade, groups that miss the August 21 deadline can still enter as late as September 1 by calling Ms McDow, but will be marching at the end of the parade.

Everyone is encouraged to participate, Ms McDow said.

Ms Franze suggests that marchers find a spot for their cars at the end of the parade route and arrange to be dropped off at the lineup.

Ms Franze encourages parade participants to follow the historic theme of the parade, remembering Newtown’s past history with a look to its future. In past parades, church floats have been “really good at following the theme,” Ms McDow said.

This year, members of the Visiting Nurse Association will dress in antique blue capes and white caps and ride in an antique trolley.

 The committee discourages groups from throwing candy unless they have someone walking to hand it out.

Donations toward the parade are going well, Ms Franze said. Early in the summer, the committee mailed fund-raising letters to every home in town, urging support for the parade. The budget for the parade this year stands at about $15,000, with the bulk of the funds, about $13,000, being spent for bands.

“We have always had tremendous response,” Ms McDow said. “I was astounded at the donations.”

Residents and businesses are very generous and supportive, year to year, Ms Franze added.

Costs have risen for this year’s parade, particularly for the bands. “Relationships that once existed between people in Newtown and certain bands no longer exist,” Ms Franze said. Other expenses include printing, postage, trophies, prizes, insurance, and printing.

 Bands look at marching in parades as a business, she noted, and their prices have gone up because of increased costs for travel, insurance and uniforms.

One exception is the Connecticut Firefighters’ Fife and Drum Corps, which performs as a service to Newtown Hook and Ladder. It waives its normal $1,000 fee as a thank you for the Fire Company letting them use its facility all year for band practice, Ms McDow said.

Parade donations may be sent to Fleet Bank, 6 Queen Street, Newtown, CT 06470. Checks should be made payable to Newtown Summer Festival.

The good news for this year’s parade is that all the bands and musical groups are returning, Ms McDow said. There will be a total of 28 bands. “I get a lot of comments from the bands. They wouldn’t miss it!” she said.

The parade has attracted a couple of new bands this year, Ms Franze said, including an Irish band, Celtic Cross Pipes & Drums from Danbury. The Connecticut Alumni Senior Drum & Bugle Corps will be returning.

The parade is also the first march of the season for Newtown High’s marching band. “It’s the first time we get to see them this year,” Ms McDow said. Cheerleaders and the Marquettes dance group will also be in the parade.

Another colorful group is the Sons of Portugal dancers, who wear colorful costumes and dance the entire parade route, Ms McDow said.

There will be a flyover by Gordon Rapp of Connecticut Air Adventures of Simsbury, sponsored by American Legion, The George A. Powell, Sr Post 202.

The plane is “real flashy,” Ms McDow said, “with colored smoke.”

Ms McDow said that Gordon Williams said the Lions Club is going to “pull out all the stops” this year in advertising its playground project for Treadwell Park. “The float will be something to do with the playground.”

There will be more dogs in the parade, Ms McDow said. For the first time, members of Canine Advocates of Newtown will be walking with their dogs, some of which are dogs who had been adopted from the pound.

Also new this year will be the Central Connecticut Mustang Car Club, teen beauty queens, and Socko’s Haunted Yard float. 

The line of march will also include tractor clubs, antique cars, church groups, horse groups, local ambulance and fire companies, veterans’ groups, Chamber of Commerce, clubs and organizations, several dentists, and sports groups, Ms McDow said.

“We have all the elementary schools and day cares,” Ms McDow said.

Also represented will be the Beardsley Zoo, Big Y’s antique car, the Fairfield Sheriff’s Department honor guard, garden clubs, Knights of Columbus, martial arts schools, and the Parkinson’s Support Group.

The Hickey Septic Service will be in the parade again this year, with a “skunk” on the top. “He said he’s looking for some `little’ skunks,” Ms McDow said. “The people loved it last year!”

 Another annual tradition in the parade, the Pyramid Temple Shriners, will be back. “People really look forward to them,” Ms Franz said. “The Swamp Yankees will be back again this year.”

Newtown’s Labor Day parade began 39 years ago as part of a Labor Day weekend event called Newtown Progress Days, which included, in addition to the parade, a block party and athletic events at Dickinson Park.

In 1963, new events were added, such as a band concert, a water carnival, and the selection of a Miss Newtown to reign over the festivities. In 1967, the Newtown Progress Festival, as it was then known, included a series of events that began on July 3 and ended with the Labor Day Parade.

The parade has had various themes. In 1978 it was “Reach for the Stars”; in 1980 it was “Getting Into Shape for the 80s”; and in 1982 in was “Newtown: It’s the Good Life”.

In 1972 Parade Marshal Lee Davenson rolled around on roller skates and then Town Clerk Mae Schmidle, dressed in an all-gold safari outfit, rode an elephant.