East Longmeadow Rotary Club and 250th Committee members Donna Prather and Adele Hill joined Tyler Garnet and Dennis Hackett on the latest episode of “So That Reminds Me.”
Reminder Publishing photo by Chris Maza
EAST LONGMEADOW — With the United States celebrating its 250th anniversary this July, East Longmeadow is pulling out all the stops with one of its biggest Fourth of July celebrations to date.
On the latest episode of “So That Reminds Me”, East Longmeadow Rotary Club and 250th Committee members Donna Prather and Adele Hill joined Tyler Garnet and myself to talk all about East Longmeadow’s Fourth of July and 250th anniversary celebrations, dubbed “Celebrating America 250th in 01028 in the USA”.
Hill said people can look forward to “lots of stuff” as a part of the celebration and said it was a group effort with organizations in town.
“Celebrate 250th in East Longmeadow started off as sort of an idea with different groups from the Recreation Department, Rotary Club, as well as the town manager’s office, and it has evolved into this huge amount of coordination for a bunch of different events starting on June 26,” she said.
Hill added that Center Field will serve as the main stage for the events kicking off on June 26, which includes live music and a beer garden put together by East Village Tavern. Beginning on June 26, there will be a car show from 5-7 p.m. with a performance from Just Go With It; on June 27, there will be lawn games, Trivia with Rich and the town’s first ceremonial bonfire, along with live music from Project 267; there will be a cornhole tournament from 3-7 p.m. along with a performance from Aquanett; and on June 29 the Rotary Club will be offering free meals for veterans followed by a performance from Now That’s 90’s. There will also be food available for purchase every night.
Following the additional four days of events this year, the annual carnival kicks off on June 30 at Center Field, which runs every day through July 4. There will also be live music at the carnival each night starting with Masshats on June 30, Trailer Trash on July 1, the Black Cadillacs on July 2 and 7Roads Band on July 3. Also, on July 3 at Mapleshade Elementary School, Trailer Trash will perform again before the laser light show, which is scheduled for 9 p.m. All the concerts will take place at 7 p.m., and the carnival will run each day from 6-10 p.m.
On July 4, the parade steps off at 10 a.m. from St. Michael’s Church and will continue along traditional route from Maple Street to North Main Street to Maplewood Street to Elm Street, while the carnival runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. that day. It’s Pat Again will play the last concert that night.
Hill said a new addition to the parade this year is a sensory spot.
“Which will be Elmcrest, which is just at the end of the parade route before the parade route ends at Hanward Hill,” she said. “The DPW and police, we’re going to set it up so that we have the area cornered off and families can have one-sided parking on that street so they can park close so those with issues with loud noises, loud sounds or loud colors, and lights and such have a more quiet area to actually enjoy the parade.”
Along with the events throughout the week, the club and Historical Commission are still accepting submissions for the time capsule until June 27. There are donation boxes available in town buildings. Hill also highlighted the first business that submitted for the capsule.
“If you look on Facebook, Jeanie’s Weenies gave a hat, so that was actually the first thing donated,” she said.
Hill also said the laser light show, which has replaced the traditional fireworks because of the construction of the new high school, has been a huge success.
“We are guessing we had thousands of people for the laser light show because everybody else in the area canceled their fireworks because they couldn’t set them off,” she said.
Prather said the new location at Mapleshade was also a success.
“We got a lot of great feedback also about the location of it because of the way it was set up on the field and people were able to walk to it,” she said.
Hill said that putting all the events together is a community effort.
“It’s great to have so many planners from the town, town officials, as well as with the Rec. Department and Rotarians who have all come together to help plan these different events,” Hill said. “For the July 4 parade, we have a lot of community members who come out and help.”
Prather added that the volunteers are a huge part of organizing the events.
“It’s huge, it goes from word of mouth to someone out there hanging a banner, or setting up chairs for an event, we have high school students that help us, this wouldn’t happen without volunteers, both monetarily and sweat equity,” she said. “It’s enormous how many people come out and help.”
Prather said she was most looking forward to people coming out and having fun.
“It’s really about seeing people happy and having a good time; there’s enough to worry about going on in the world right now so let’s just have some fun,” she said.
The following communities also have plenty of events in store for the holiday and anniversary:
Chicopee is celebrating America’s 250th birthday from 4-10 p.m. at Szot Park on Friday, June 26. Fireworks will take place on Saturday, June 27, with a rain date of Sunday, June 28, at Szot Park.
- Holyoke’s July 4 fireworks celebration will take place at Holyoke Community College on Friday, June 26, and a rain date is scheduled for Saturday, June 27. The event begins at 6 p.m. There will be food, music and family-friendly activities before the fireworks display at dusk.
- On Saturday June 27, the Thunder in the Valley Concert & Fireworks Festival returns. The event is ran by nonprofit Unbroken Wings Inc and the proceeds for the event go to benefit the Children’s Miracle Network at Baystate Children’s Hospital. It is a full day event featuring live bands, food trucks, family-friendly games and activities and a fireworks show to end the night.
- The annual South Hadley fireworks celebration will occur on Friday, July 3, at 5 p.m., with the fireworks commencing at 9:30 p.m. at the Michael E. Smith Middle School. A potential rain date is scheduled for Sunday, July 5. The evening will include food trucks, vendors, rides and games for kids. There will be a DJ in the parking lot, and the South Hadley Community Band will start to play at 8 p.m.
- Westfield will be home to the annual Wyben Fourth of July Parade, which starts at 5 p.m. on July 4 at the corner of North and Montgomery roads. Westfield will also have a fireworks display at Westfield Middle School on July 2 at 9:15 p.m.
- Star Spangled Springfield returns on July 4 from 6-10 p.m. with fireworks to be displayed from the Memorial Bridge.
- Enfield will host its Fourth of July Town Celebration from July 10-12. There will be a 5K at 9 a.m. and parade at 11 a.m. on July 11 along with a car show on July 12 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., followed by the fireworks at 9:45 p.m. Beginning on July 10, there will be live music and family events throughout the weekend.
To listen to the full episode, head to thereminder.com/ourpodcast or search “So That Reminds Me” on your favorite podcasting platform.
