Thousands of people will line the streets in the center of Newtown come Monday, September 7, eagerly awaiting the first notes of the Newtown High School Marching Band that mark the start of the annual Labor Day Parade. The stream of floats, bands, dancers, musicians, clubs, scouts, fire trucks, and tractors that follow the band flows down Main Street and onto Glover Avenue to the grandstand on Queen Street with seemingly little effort.

But that feat of organization for Newtown’s end-of-summer extravaganza has been months in the making. Labor Day Parade Committee members Beth Caldwell (president), Robin Buchanan, Brian Amey, Dan Cruson, Andy Cluff, Ellie Whalen, Andy Gallagher, Tom D’Agostino, Kym Stendahl, Betsy Kenyon, Melissa Gordon, and Manny Fernandes have been generating ideas for the upcoming parade since January, with many weeks more of planning to go before residents will reap the harvest of their work.

“We have a theme for this year’s parade,” announce Ms Caldwell, Friday, April 24, “and we have selected a grand marshal. This year, we will honor the Society of Creative Arts in Newtown (SCAN) with the theme, ‘Celebrating the Fine Art of Newtown.’ Our grand marshal will be Ruth Newquist, who, along with her late husband, founded SCAN. SCAN has been around a long time, and we felt it was a great time to celebrate what this group has brought to Newtown.

“Ruth is very well-known in the region for her artistic skills, and she and her husband were instrumental in bringing Newtown into the world of the arts. We’re thrilled she is going to be a part of the parade this year,” said Ms Caldwell. Ms Newquist is an award-winning watercolor and oil artist, known for her cityscapes and New England scenes.

Parade committee members were pleased with the diversity of entrants in the 2014 parade, and hope to build on that this fall.

“The Marching Cobras from New York were very well received. And,” said Ms Buchanan, “they were featured in the Academy Award-winning movie, The Birdman. They’ll be back. We’re hoping to have the Bethel High School Band again, and add other area high school bands, as well,” Ms Buchanan said. “We’re still in the infancy stage, so far as getting the participants, but we got a lot of good feedback from last year,” she added.

Keeping hungry paradegoers satisfied will be the task of a number of food vendors set up before, during, and after the parade at Newtown Middle School on Queen Street. A tag sale is also scheduled at that site prior to, and for the duration of, the parade.

As always, the committee hopes to see great participation from local clubs and organizations. “We’re encouraging creative floats that reflect our theme,” said Ms Buchanan. Many of the prizes are based on how well the theme is reflected, and on the crowd response.

The theme is meant to celebrate not only SCAN, but all of the arts in Newtown, Ms Buchanan said, including “arts” that might not first come to mind.

“There’s the art of flower design, the art of hair cutting, the art of landscaping, for instance. I think this theme could lend itself to a lot of creativity,” she pointed out.

Only commercial entries are charged the $100 fee to participate, unless the entry is a float. There is no fee to enter a float.

Currently, the Labor Day Parade Committee is seeking sponsorship. Sponsorship levels are Platinum, for $3,000, which includes sponsor board at grandstand and reviewing stands, two grandstand seats, special recognition on all advertising material and on the radio, inside full-page color cover ad in the program book; Gold, for $1,750, which includes sponsor board at the grandstand and reviewing stands, two grandstand seats, special recognition on all advertising materials and on the radio, full-page color ad in the program book; and the Event sponsorship, for $1,000, with recognition by emcees at reviewing stands as an event sponsor, and a half-page color ad in program book. Individuals can also choose to co-sponsor a participant, and will be recognized in the parade program.

New this year, will be the “shout out” in the parade program. Anyone can purchase a shout out to an individual or business.

“It costs nearly $30,000 to put on the parade,” said Ms Caldwell. In recent years, they have had to count more and more on corporate sponsorships. This year, she said, she hopes to see a return to support by more residents for the parade. “Individual support is important,” she stressed.

Donations can be mailed to Newtown Labor Day Parade, PO Box 746, Newtown CT 06470.

To become a sponsor, contact Ms Caldwell at 203-994-4849.

For registration and participation information e-mail Ms Buchanan at robinlynann@aol.com.

The Newtown Labor Day Parade Committee announced Monday, May 4, that Newtown Savings Bank will once again serve as Title Sponsor.