Many Will Benefit From

Parade Committee’s Decision

To the Editor:

On behalf of the Parish Community of Saint Rose of Lima, I want to thank our town’s Labor Day Parade Committee for the incredible work they do in providing our community with one of the most significant and fun events that our town hosts each year. These volunteer committee members deserve our gratitude for the hours of service they give in planning, staging, and executing our parade.

I especially want to thank them for reconsidering the time they originally scheduled for the parade, which was moved to Columbus Day Weekend. The 10 am time would have had a very negative impact on our parish Mass schedule, as well as our religious education program, which more than 700 students attend on Sunday morning, not to mention the traffic and safety issues it would have created throughout the town for our parishioners trying to get to and from church that morning. Our parking lot would not have been available for the hundreds of people who park here as both participants in the parade and spectators.

Special thanks to Beth Caldwell, Brian Aimee, Chief Kehoe, and First Selectman Pat Llodra for listening to the concerns that came forth from many in town, especially our parishioners, to revisit their decision and change the time of the parade. We will all benefit in many ways from this decision.

I encourage all of Newtown to come out for this year’s special parade, which commemorates 50 years of celebrating who we are as a town and as a community of people of good will. After the weather events of this past winter, spring, and summer, it is time to sit back and have some fun!

God bless and thanks,

Monsignor Robert Weiss, Pastor

Saint Rose of Lima Parish

46 Church Hill Road, Newtown September 7, 2011