PICTURED FROM THE LEFT: Jack Warchol, Barbara Worley, Andrea Ahearne, Dave Sidebottom, Cheryl Dalton, Brian Fox, Laurel Sullivan and Kevin Scheeler. (File Photograph)
As some already know, I attended a spaghetti dinner fundraiser in May 2014 as the new committee started to bring back the parade after a few years off. I didn’t realize walking into that event that ten years later I would be in charge of the largest 4th of July Parade in the state for the past six years, including its 100th anniversary and its 75th parade and through a global pandemic. It has been an amazing run, but the 2024 parade was my last one. My board term officially ends tonight with our board election and I will be leaving the committee. Being able to put on the Wakefield 4th of July Parade has been one of my greatest joys and I made so many friends and wonderful memories doing it, but it’s time for someone else to step up and take it over. I have given all that I could and then some to keep the tradition alive over the past few years but I am looking forward to a much more relaxing 4th of July moving forward.
I have been reflecting a lot over the past few months about my experiences as I knew this day was coming. I have been interviewed on WBUR and Boston 25 about the chairs along the route, I made a joking Facebook post about trying to get Tom Brady in the parade that led to Boston news coverage and an interview on Boston 25, I brought the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile to town, I got to hang out with my friends at meetings and events, I got to drive around town in golf carts on closed and open roads, I was on a poster dressed like Uncle Sam that was hung up at high schools around the area for a t-shirt contest and I had a chance look down a parade route with thousands of people on it anticipating an event I helped put on.
Some of my proudest achievements were how we handled the parade during Covid. We went from maybe cancelling the carnival to cancelling two years of parades. I spearheaded a kid’s drawing contest and delivered shirts to every child who submitted one, we held a 4th of July themed house decorating contest and I was a founder of the Friends of Wakefield Small Business Fund. The fund was a collaboration with Wakefield Community Partnership, Wakefield Main Streets, Wakefield Rotary and the WIDC to collect and distribute over $70,000 to small businesses in Wakefield during the height of the pandemic.
When I was booking, I added things I would like to see: Chinese lion dancers, steel drummers, a mariachi band, costume characters, military reenactors, Terry O’Reilly, our Olympics themed year with Summer and Winter Olympians, Paralympians and Special Olympians from the area, movie cars and much more. Hopefully it was things you and your family enjoyed seeing as well. Imagine standing in at check in and seeing a bus with pirates, clowns and bands all arriving at the same time and thinking how silly it would all be on any normal day to see the groups arriving together anywhere but on the 4th of July in Wakefield it just makes sense.
There will be six board members this year that I know of so far, four are new additions and many new volunteers have reached out since last year. I wish them the best of luck as they carry on the tradition. Thousands look forward to the Wakefield 4th of July parade every year. I am sure the new board will be reaching out for volunteers soon…and donations. The two biggest issues that affect the parade every year are volunteers and donations. Money coming in has gone down while expenses have gone up. Pre-Covid we put on a parade for between $50,000 and $80,000. Post-Covid we have exceeded $100,000 a year. Some commented this year and said 2024 was smaller than in years past but it cost as much as the year before for less stuff and insurance alone went up over $5000. It’s not sustainable and if you love the parade and want it to continue, please make sure you buy a shirt or two, attend a fundraiser or send in some money. The committee can’t do it without all of you.
Lastly, a special thank you goes to my wife Jackie. I don’t know how many hours I have spent on the parade over the years, it’s impossible to quantify. I have booked groups in lines at Disney World, I have been late to make dinner or suddenly had to leave for a meeting or take phone calls, I have lost track of how many emails I have sent with her sitting next to me on the couch doing her own thing and waiting for me to be done, I have kept boxes and tubs in my dining room and living room for a few months the past few years full of shirts and other event stuff and of course the time spent on weekends star painting or hanging out at event tables, plus spending our 4th of July in a hot parking lot instead of by a pool or lake. If she wasn’t supporting me through all of this there probably wouldn’t have been a parade the past few years.
Soon to be former WIDC Chairman,
Brian Fox
A FLOAT in the Independence Day Parade featured the winners of the West Side Social Club’s children’s bicycle and doll carriage parade contests. (Mark Sardella Photo)
