Civil War re-enactors fire a salute during the Labor Day parade in Newtown, Conn., in 2011. The 11th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, Company A, will march again this year, but with black armbands and rifles pointed downward, in the wake of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary. (Chris Sullivan, The Associated Press)
NEWTOWN, conn. ? Ten thousand decisions go into creating a big, boisterous parade. No one knows that better than Robin Buchanan, who for years has juggled the lineup at the Labor Day parade that has closed out every Newtown summer for five decades.
But never before had this happened: Calls and e-mails from regulars, folks who always marched, concerned about the most basic decision of all. "Are you going to have a parade this year?" they asked.
Meaning: After the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School and the eulogies for 20 first-graders and six educators.
On an icy evening back in January, barely a month after the shootings, a small group met with sad hugs to confront that question.
How could anyone focus on a parade? Who would be the grand marshal, a happy honor normally but surely a heavy burden this time around? What would the theme be? Could it be anything but a memorial?
Yet they knew that planning a parade is a long process. And they sensed that, somehow, this year it could be one piece of the enormous task facing the shattered town, of finding ways to move forward through grief. So they got going.
"I think we're all kind of nervous about how we proceed," said Beth Caldwell, head of the committee, a real estate agent by day. Through the months ahead, she would work to maintain a delicate balance ? "respectful of what has happened and still offering an avenue of celebration."
Coming together
A foot of snow covered the ground when the parade committee members got down to business in February.
They went over the items agreed on back in January: Though they had considered several possible grand marshals ? from the police chief to the pastor of St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church, which lost so many children ? they had decided no one person was enough this year. The whole town would marshal this parade, in effect.
They had settled on the theme during a discussion about qualities they wanted to highlight. Committee secretary Dan Cruson, the town historian, noted, "we're strong." And Caldwell offered her suggestion: "We are Newtown, marching strong." Adopted.
At nearly 60 square miles, Newtown is spread out, and over time five volunteer fire companies have formed. They typically lead the parade's five divisions, one by one, each accompanied by a band.
In the past, there had been head-butting between the chiefs and the parade committee about limiting the number of big trucks, about parade judging and other issues.
At the committee's March meeting, fire company representatives sat with arms crossed. Everyone knew what they'd done in December; Sandy Hook's firehouse, near the school, was where parents came that day, where they got the news.
"12/14 changed us all," Caldwell told the chiefs, who had never met with the committee before. "I'm sorry it's taken so long to get you here."
"It just felt right"
As the months passed, even those closest to the tragedy began to think about joining the parade.
Sandy Hook Elementary School ? though temporarily moved to a nearby town, its old building awaiting demolition and reconstruction ? will be there. Its float will have a globe and thank-you signs ? for support sent from around the world.
St. Rose Church will march, a Tree of Life on its float. Trinity Episcopal Church's entry will feature "Ben's Lighthouse," the charity named for Ben Wheeler, one of the first-graders.
In July, the Avielle Foundation, named for 6-year-old Avielle Richman, said yes.
"Robin Buchanan sent me a message on Facebook and said, 'Would you consider this?' " said Avielle's mother, Jennifer Hensel.
"It just felt right immediately," she said, then paused. "Grief has its own process," she went on. "And each family will have to do what's best for them."
She and her husband, Jeremy Richman, both scientists, will walk behind a banner for the foundation, which supports research into the brain pathologies behind violence. It also promotes community outreach, so that isolated, vulnerable individuals, like the Sandy Hook shooter, are not ignored.
"I feel that a way for us to heal is to pull into the community," Hensel said.
So they'll march, thinking of their daughter, her husband said. "Avielle loved parades."
Finding a balance
In August, the planners met twice more, tying up dozens of loose ends.
Looking back, Caldwell thought the committee had found the right balance between respectful remembrance and celebration.
"There's going to be a lot of bittersweet moments," she said.
She was thinking of the memorial floats. "It's coming face-to-face with these things that allows us to move forward," she said. "But how can you not smile when those crazy Shriner cars come down the road?"
Buchanan, looking back, recalled the question, "Are you going to have a parade this year?"
Now, the answer was clear. Her lineup finally set ? and bigger than ever before ? she visualized the scene at the ambulance garage where participants crowd in on Labor Day morning. Beauty queens and flag-bearers, jugglers and barking dogs. And Main Street lined to see Newtown marching again.
Source: http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_23991528/big-labor-day-parade-newtown-marches?source=rss
julia child
Actress Jordana Brewster and her film producer husband Andrew Form are excited to announce that they welcomed a baby boy via surrogate. Their little bundle of joy, named Julian-Brewster-Form, joins the couple and their two Labradors Henry and Ella! Brewster’s rep said today that “the parents are overjoyed”. Jordana, 33, who currently stars on TNT’s ...
A visitor to China today will be overwhelmed by China?s domestic tourism. The economic power unleashed by Deng Xiaoping?s reforms, decades ago, has generated an affluent middle class hungry to travel. Within China this has created a massive industry.
?Loading ...