Labor Day Parade

Set For Monday

By Nancy K. Crevier

The end of summer may be mourned by many around the state, but Newtown residents know that there is one good celebration left to send off summertime in style: The 47th Annual Labor Day Parade.

This year’s theme, “Keeping Us Reading for 75 Years” honors the 75th Anniversary of the C.H. Booth Library, and fittingly enough, Booth Library Board of Directors President Judge William J. Lavery will serve as this year’s Grand Marshal.

Judge Lavery’s commitment to the town, in which he and wife, Joan, have lived since 1972, has been apparent in his dedication to C.H. Booth Library. Judge Lavery has been elected to the C.H. Booth Library board of trustees for 14 of the years between 1991 and 2007.

“I think I’m symbolic, as I represent the library,” said Judge Lavery. He is proud of the many facets of the library that benefit residents of Newtown. “Our library is a community center,” he said. “We satisfy a diversity of needs.”

The highly anticipated Labor Day event sets off from the top of Main Street near the ambulance garage at 10 am, Monday, September 3, and will wend its way past the thick throngs gathered at the roadside, past the reviewing stand at the Flagpole, all the way to Ram Pasture, before turning up Glover Avenue and then past the judges’ stand on Queen Street. There, the numerous bands, drum corps, fire companies, dancers, float entrants, and other parade entrants will have the opportunity to flaunt their talents, in hopes of impressing this year’s judges, Diana Baxter, Wendy Cole, Peg Jacques, Carm O’Neill, Barbara Snyder, and Joanne Zang. The judges will bestow the coveted Rooster Award to the parade entry deemed Most Crowd Pleasing.

Always offering something new, this year’s parade features America’s Strongest Man, Derek Poundstone. Mr Poundstone captured the national title earlier this year and parade committee members are pleased that he has agreed to march in the parade. Look for Russo’s Hillside Llamas ambling along, as well, and who could overlook the Tick Ranger?

Longtime parade favorites the Celtic Cross Pipes & Drums, the Fairfield Gaelic Pipe Band, the Sons of Portugal Band and Dancers, and the Mattatuck Drum Band will be back, and no Newtown Labor Day Parade would be complete without the town’s very own Newtown High School Marching Band, Color Guard, and Marquettes. The Shriners Motor Patrol will entertain the crowd, as it does each year,  with daring maneuvers executed in marvelous minicars.  

Parade programs will be available along the parade route early Monday morning, but for those who eschew reading along, John Klopfenstein and Nancy Koch will emcee the Reviewing Stand at the Flagpole, offering an entertaining look at each division of the parade. At the Grandstand on Queen Street, emcees Mike Giarratano and Mary Ann Murtha will be on hand to announce parade entries.

Parking is available along side streets, and at Newtown Savings Bank’s 39 Main Street headquarters, parking will be available to the public with the purchase of one Cyrenius H. Booth raffle ticket per car, at a cost of $10. The raffle offers the chance to win diamond earrings, a Compaq Presario Notebook, a $175 Ricci’s Salon gift certificate, or an Apple iPod at the drawing to be held September 28.

In addition, collection boxes will be set up at the bank and the grandstand area on Queen Street for nonperishable food donations to the United Way Food Drive.

Anyone making a donation to either the library or the food drive is welcome to join Newtown Savings Bank employees and their families at the bank’s parade viewing event at 39 Main Street.

Best of all, for the first time in several years, the Labor Day Parade Committee is pleased to announce that thanks to the generosity of corporate and business sponsors, as well as local residents, the more than $20,000 it takes to present the parade has been collected already.

Come one, come all. Bring family, bring friends. The 47th Annual Labor Day Parade is on its way.