Parade and Fireworks 7/10/25

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Parade and fireworks, Minutes July 10, 2025

Attendance - Jay, Sue, Justin, Julie, Stefani, Rebecca, Tom

Call to order: 7:02 Sue Glennon

Agenda

• Approve minutes of 6.26.25 meeting
• 4th July Feedback from Community - 
• Review 4th of July - Logistics and Event
  • Everything went well. Floats ran smoothly. Lots of kids who stuck around for activities. Bouncy House was a hit. 
  • The train was running late and luckily came through right before the runners. Sue puts in a stop order every year and verifies with Amtrak up to the day before the parade. Might need to be live tracking the train just in case.
  • Fun Run - 200-300 participants. All went well. Chris said things went really smoothly. Many thanks to Chris for his efforts.
  • Parade - 27 floats, went well. Spreadsheet for the line up worked well. 
  • Flaggers - 2 officers, ~5 volunteers. Fire truck was not across East Main St. to stop traffic. 
  • Vendors - Samosa Man showed up and didn’t realize there was no market. More vendors at night too - fried dough, french fries. Requests for the chicken BBQ to come back. Sue talked to the person who did it for 20 years and he may be able to work with the committee and do it as part of what we sponsor. Rebecca shared some preliminary feedback from the survey. She will send it out again since the first link was incorrect. Will also ask Duncan to put the feedback survey on website.
  • Karaoke - Very few signups prior to 4th. 26 pre-register, 13 actual contestants. 
  • Grand Marshall - Times Ink article thanking everyone and profiling Harland Stockwell. Next year’s marshall - Linda Parent? Sue Glennon? Sue says she will never do it. She and Barbara had a time when they did it.  
  • Car demolition - Fantastic! 2 people applied to fire department. They will do it again next year. One comment on feedback survey, “I'd like the band to start earlier so that most people hadn't left by that time, and the Jaw Of Life to not start at the same time as the band concert.”  Fire dept needs to be on the vendor list so they get the email. Car demo and band started at same time, 1pm need to alter.
  • Car show - Good turnout. Sue talk to Jim O’Brien and Tom May. 
  • Kids Games / Bouncy House - Sue is looking into buying bouncy houses. Could save money in the long run. Stefani brought up that maintenance, storage and staffing may not be worth the savings. Justin said that they are about 400lbs and hard to move. Plus we would need a generator and staffing. Rebecca noted that Bouncy House plugged one of the bouncy houses into the power coming from the Hartsfield house for the misting tent. Having a person staff it who is on the company’s liability insurance makes a big difference. Brain storm some new kids ideas. 
  • Volunteers- low volunteer sign up this year. Added a volunteer sign up to 4th of July feedback form for this year. 2026 Volunteer sign up is Ready To Go!! Sign up now. (ask Duncan to put on website)
  • Fireworks - Good turnout, 25 minutes long. Maybe a little shorter. Sue will call soon about how to ensure the discount for ordering early, then will put in a request to selectboard.
  • Set up -  3:00 start. Went well except for the t-storm that damaged the misting tent, pop up tent and baby pool.
    • 4:00-7:00 for 2026?
    • Need to purchase a misting tent, approximately $400. Need a kiddie pool. Project All Together Now lost a pop up tent that she lent to kids games. Rebecca suggested selling the big tents that we don’t use anymore and use that money for the needed replacements. 
    • Sell band tent (2- 20 x 40 tents) . Justin recommended purchasing 4 pop up tents to put in a square together. People can sit under those for the chicken BBQ or other food. Also purchase a misting tent and replacement pop up for PATN.
  • Cleanup - 8am - not as much litter as last year. No broken glass. Need disposable gloves for picking up trash. 
  • Information tent - need sign that hangs from top “Information” “Lost Parents”
• Tom added that he would like to get businesses to sponsor specific parts of the day. He can reach out to local businesses and ask them to sponsor things like bouncy houses, etc.
• Jay said that he and Connie have the Go Fund Me working for the Parade. We will ask Duncan to update the website links on our page to remove the old vendor and parade sign up links. And to add the “Donate” button that goes to the Go Fund Me, the feedback survey and the 2026 volunteer sign up form. The flyer looks great on there!
• Review Monthly Planning Calendar- suggested for next meeting. Rebecca started this document to help get ahead of planning. She asked people to fill in what they know about their tasks. Julie asked how necessary it is to meet in the fall. Justin mentioned that in the past, if they were organized, meetings would start in March. Around Town Meeting Day. Jay suggested meeting in October so that we could decide on the theme so it can be announced in time for Halloween on the Green. Rebecca offered to have a booth for Fourth of July at Halloween on the Green. We can decorate in a way to promote the parade theme.
• Discussion about whether or not we want to take on the October coin drop if the fire dept. Cannot do it.  
• Next meetings: Oct. 23rd, then resume monthly Third Thursdays in January.
• A Motion to adjourn

Tom Carpenter - tcarpe@ gmavt.net