Bill Halstead has participated in every Newtown Labor Day Parade since the annual event’s inception.

He drove one year, when he was the First Engineer of Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire & Rescue (SHVFR), and he rode one other year, due to a leg injury. Aside from that, the lifelong resident has walked in each of Newtown’s 57 parades to date.

This year, the longtime chief of Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire & Rescue will have a place of honor during one of the town’s largest annual events. Mr Halstead has been named the grand marshal of the 2019 Labor Day Parade, scheduled for Monday, September 2.

The theme of this year’s parade, according to Line of March Coordinator Melissa Kopcik, is “Volunteers Keeping Our Community Strong.”

The choice of Mr Halstead, she told The Newtown Bee last week, was because “he’s done so much. We wanted to honor him properly.”

Mr Halstead joined SHVFR on his 16th birthday.

“I joined the fire company because my whole family was involved in the fire company,” he said this week. “My aunts, my mother, and my grandmother were in the auxiliary, and my uncles were in the company. Years ago, my father was in the company, and my brother was in the fire company.”

During the mid 1960s, when Mr Halstead joined SHVFR, fire companies were very active in the town’s social scene, he said. Dances, tag sales, even carnivals were all regularly hosted by the town’s different companies.

“There were a lot of family-oriented events,” he said. “You look at all the companies, and they were hosting a lot of different events.”

Mr Halstead has served as chief of SHVFR since 1978.

In addition to decades of volunteer hours for the fire service, Mr Halstead retired as Fire Marshal for the Town of Newtown in November 2016.

Prior to that, he worked at Fairfield Hills with the state hospital’s fire company for more than 20 years, including many as assistant chief and chief.

Mr Halstead also continues to serve as director of Newtown’s Emergency Management Office and remains a member of many fire associations and organizations.

He continues to set the bar for the firefighters in Sandy Hook, regularly appearing at the top of the monthly stats for call responses.

Among the members of the company is his daughter, Karin, who is SHVFR's EMS Captain. Mr Halstead's wife is Deb Aurelia Halstead, a member of the company's Ladies Auxiliary.

He has another daughter, Krista; a son, Bill Jr; and four grandchildren, Ryan and Nathan Halstead, Eliza Earle, and Emma Guilfoil.

Parade Day

Labor Day Parade Mondays begin early for Chief Halstead and his company. Firefighters who are participating in the Labor Day Parade begin arriving at Sandy Hook’s main station as early as 7:30 am, he said.

Class A uniforms are used for parades and involve a number of accoutrements that are affixed to the formal uniforms just before departure. Company photos are also done prior to departure.

Washing and waxing the apparatus — the company currently has nine trucks and a quad — is done regularly beginning two weeks before the parade, he said.

“It’s pretty hectic,” he commented.

And then the entire entourage — trucks, men, women, and sometimes even children (including sons and daughters and grandchildren of members) — all make their way to the staging location for that year’s parade.

“We get everybody and everything set and then head up to wherever our particular division is that year,” he said Monday, May 6.

Then it is a waiting game.

“We get everything parked, and then we wait for the start of the parade, or actually for the division to go,” he said. Depending on which division the company is in — Newtown’s fire companies rotate among the divisions each year — the group could start marching as early as 10:15 am. Later division assignments mean step-off is that much later, of course.

The company covers the parade route, then takes a quick breather and regroups on Church Hill Road just east of the end of Queen Street and the parade route. The group then returns to SHVFR’s main station on Riverside Road.

“If they leave right after the parade, maybe they’re out of here around 12:30 or 1,” he said. “And that’s if we’re in an early division.”

Chief Halstead is honored, he said earlier this week, to have been invited to serve as grand marshal for his hometown parade.

“I think the only other fire chief to have been a grand marshal was Lee Glover,” Chief Halstead said of the former chief of Newtown Hook & Ladder Company.

“It’s nice to be in the same company as him,” Chief Halstead said this week. “He’s a very respected man.”

Until recent years, the parade had five divisions, but it has not always been as large as today’s event, which typically hits the three-hour mark. Bands, floats, and participants from across Connecticut and sometimes even out of state join Newtown clubs and organizations, businesses, et al to participate in the end-of-summer celebration.

With five fire companies in town, the chiefs of the fire companies used to take care of lining up the marchers in each division, Chief Halstead said this week.

“When dispatch was still in Edmond Town Hall, the chiefs would go there and get the signs for their division that morning,” he recalled. “Then they’d go out and set up the signs before people started arriving.

“That’s how it always used to run, but that’s also before there was a parade committee,” he said. “The parade wasn’t really as big as it is now.”

Easily the largest (and probably the only) Labor Day Parade in the state, Newtown has hosted a Labor Day parade since 1962. An estimated 4,000 people lined the streets of town on September 3, 1962, when Lee Glover served as parade marshal for the first time (Glover has led the parade a record number of times, having also been given the honor in 1963, 1971, and 2011).

The parade steps off at 10 am from the intersection of Main Street and Currituck Road and travels south along Main Street, turns onto Glover Avenue, then picks up Queen Street. From there, it heads north, to the intersection of Queen Street and Church Hill Road.

For the 57th parade last year, four full divisions and two escort divisions were filled, with more than 120 groups and organizations — local fire companies, marching bands, schools, groups and clubs, dancers, floats, military vehicles, politicians, et al — joining Grand Marshal Eunice Laverty on that route.

Committee Openings Remain

A few new volunteers joined the Labor Day Parade Committee last month, according to Melissa Kopcik, but many openings still remain ahead of this year’s event.

Labor Day Parade President Nick Kopcik reminded residents recently that the more volunteers available on parade day, “the less work there is for everyone.”

People of all ages are welcome, he said.

Volunteers are needed for advance planning and day-of work. A treasurer and second Line of March coordinator are both needed, as are general committee members. On the day of the parade, volunteers will also be needed to help participants find their staging locations, serve as street judges, keep the line of march moving, and other tasks.

The Labor Day Parade Committee has a meeting scheduled for Wednesday, May 15. It will begin at 6 pm in the community room of the main Newtown Savings Bank office, 39 Main Street. All are invited to attend the meeting.

For additional information, or for those who cannot attend the May meeting but would like to learn about Labor Day Parade volunteer opportunities, visit newtownctlabordayparade.org.