Calling All Charlotters:
You’re Invited to the Annual Town Party!
by Laura Cahners-Ford

 
Book lovers peruse the choices at last year's Town Party book sale.
photo by Robbie Stanley


This summer’s biggest bash, the Town Party, takes place on Saturday, July 12, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the Town Green.

Help celebrate our town by becoming part of the action. Annual favorites – the parade, book fair, food sale, town organization displays, Quinlan Schoolhouse fishing pond, music on the library porch, and Fire and Rescue’s demos– will be there for your enjoyment, along with some with new twists. This party, hosted by the Friends of the Charlotte Library, was originally held to showcase the fundraising effort underway to build a new library. It quickly ballooned into an all-town annual event now in its 14th year.

Floats, antique cars, tractors, fire engines, walkers, bikers and trikers all join in the parade that passes by the Town Green around 11 a.m. So for all of you out there who like to be part of the action, decorate your bike, your scooter, skateboard, yourself, your car or lawnmower and come join the fun.

Attention all music makers! The parade needs some marching drummers, flutists or whatever instrument you play and can carry along the parade route. Parade participants should gather at the Old Lantern at 10:30 a.m. According to Fire Chief Chris Davis, “Whatever anyone wants to bring and whatever shows up goes down the road. The more the merrier.” State police and town officials will be on hand to manage traffic control.

The annual party favorite book sale opens at 11 a.m., so early birds be patient. Proceeds from the sale add to the library’s annual book budget. Come check out the adult fiction and non-fiction, children’s books, audiotapes and CDs along with some funky treasures – old cookbooks, art books and maybe even a coveted early edition.

After hauling your book finds back to the car (bags and garden carts provided), have some lunch at the fire station across the street. The Fire and Rescue Auxiliary will provide food under cover of the firehouse engine bays. Rita St. George along with daughters Chardy and Dawn, are again taking on this mammoth task. Hot dogs will be the standard fare (last year they sold 900!) along with fries, chips, soda, water, coffee, baked goods and Ben and Jerry’s ice cream for dessert.

In addition to food, Fire and Rescue will offer station tours, equipment demonstrations and hands-on fire and safety exercises. New this year will be an ongoing eBay auction of the recently retired Dodge brush truck. Although stripped of most of it former glory — lights, radio, siren and pump — this heavy-duty work truck is a one-ton flatbed with low mileage and lots of power. Check out Fire and Rescue’s website for more details (cvfrs.com). A laptop will be available to take your bid at the station’s open house.

Kurt Fischer is again organizing a pole-vaulting exhibition behind the firehouse. Practice begins at 9 a.m. and competition starts at 10 a.m. with the starting jumps at six feet. This year there will be about 30 participants, including area high school vaulters, Middlebury College students as well as vaulters from Massachusetts and Connecticut. Shelburne athlete Flo Miler will compete again; at 74 she holds the world record for vaulters in her age group!

Next door at the Senior Center enjoy freshly brewed coffee and the current show of works by woodcarver Issa Manirambona and acrylic collage artist Nellie Ashford. Manirambona from Burundi, Africa, creates sculptures and furniture depicting African village life and animals. Ashford paints abstract scenes of African-American family life. Now’s your chance to explore the variety of activities the center offers to adults of all ages.

Just east of the fire station, the Charlotte Children’s Center will hold a tag sale filled with children’s gear. This is a good place to find deals on anything from cribs and other kid furniture to clothes and toys. Take a leisurely stroll back across the street to the green where the 30 or so town organizations will display and dispense information about their activities.

Pick up a piece of delicious cake and say hello at The Charlotte News table. Bring your young ones over to the Early Childhood Connection group (now known as Building Bright Futures) table where they can make play-dough animals or play in the texture pool while you place your bids at the Grange’s teacup auction to win specialty baked goods or needlework hangings or quilts. The Charlotte Democratic Committee will be selling Obama T-shirts. The Charlotte Land Trust will be on hand to answer any questions about its activities or conserving your land. The Conservation Commission, Town Energy Task Force and the Vermont Earth Institute will have adjacent tables filled with information on reducing our carbon imprint and living more sustainably. The Earth Institute will offer environmental cartoons to color. In addition to sharing information about the Charlotte Historical Society and its museum, authors Mary Lighthall and Kay Teetor will be on hand to sell and sign copies of Around the Mountains, edited by Lighthall, and The Historic Thompson’s Point Fishing Ground, co-authored by Teetor and Morris Glenn.

Who can resist those adorable pugs at the Pug Rescue table? Tammy Hall will be there with a selection of pugs, pug items and information about Pug Rescue. On the lawn outside the tents you’ll find the bounce house, again hosted by the Charlotte PTO. The PTO will be taking orders for the recently redesigned CCS T-shirt as well as selling the earlier version and kites. Look for more kid-oriented activities on the green organized by the Recreation Commission.

Don’t forget to meander over to the Quinlan Schoolhouse for the best kid fun yet. Children will be given age-appropriate questions relating to education at the school and find the answers inside from alumni. Kids can fish in the wading pool for prizes, get lemonade and complete a pinwheel-making activity. Whether you are buying books, eating, checking out the tents and the schoolhouse, walking pugs or watching kids play, stop to enjoy the music of Xander Naylor and Rick Cusick, each playing from the library porch.

Don’t miss out on the fun. Join your neighbors for the summer’s biggest and best party on the Town Green, July 12, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.