Town has a blast

Friday, July 8, 2011

Independence Day celebrations in Merrimack culminated with a splendid display of fireworks launched from a safe location behind Merrimack High School and enjoyed by hundreds, including this comfortably seated couple, Arauto Nunes and his wife, Lucia Nunes, visitors from Brazil who attended the festivities with Merrimack’s Maria Garrette — Lucia’s sister — Maria’s husband, Mike Garrette, and the couple’s son, David, 11, who brought along the family’s well behaved dog, Oreo. Loretta Jackson photo

Enlarge

One of many families who turned out to enjoy the beauty presented during the annual fireworks show that provided a grand finale to Independence Day activities in Merrimack looks toward the heavens as a flaming burst colors the sky and recalls for many the sacrifices of all who secured America’s freedom. Loretta Jackson photo

Enlarge

Merrimack’s Independence Day Parade featured a well populated section of participants mounted aboard lavishly decorated bicycles whose operators included this pair of bicyclists, Mark Roy and Sophie Kim, ready to ride in red-white-and-blue glory. Loretta Jackson photo

Enlarge

The Martineau family, headed by David, a chemist and his wife, Tammy, a marketing specialist, was also well represented by their flag-waving daughters, left to right, Alexis, 6, Jacqueline, 4, and Taylor, 10, who came prepared to see everything in the parade from the comfort of a blanket spread on the grass alongside Baboosic Lake Road. Loretta Jackson photo

Enlarge

More than 70 dedicated patrons of the Merrimack Library, along with many of the library’s staff members, took to the streets while bearing placards touting the library’s many services, benefits ranging from free wireless Internet to language-learning programs to easily accessed downloadable books and frequent lectures from local authors and world travelers to exotic lands. Loretta Jackson photo

Enlarge

Merrimack’s Aubrie Connely, 6, and her brother, Peyton Connelly, 4, turned out bedecked in red, white and blue and well prepared with noisemakers to welcome the annual Independence Day Parade, a lengthy cavalcade of patriotic marchers representing civic groups, military units, police and fire departments and dozens of local organizations ranging from the Boy Scouts to the Merrimack Library, represented by more than 70 patrons in dazzling yellow T-shirts. Loretta Jackson photo

Enlarge

The Rotary Club of Merrimack’s annual pancake breakfast drew hundreds, including these Merrimack residents, Tom Stone and his wife, Corinna, and their little boy, Tommy, a young gourmet here taste-testing some locally produced maple syrup. Loretta Jackson photo

Enlarge

Audience applause abounds during a chorus presentation highlighting the traditional pre-festivities’ Merrimack Concert Association performance that was moved indoors this year to Merrimack High School due to thunderstorms at the outdoor venue, Abbie Griffin Park, adjacent to town hall. Loretta Jackson photo

Enlarge

Independence Day celebrations in Merrimack culminated with a splendid display of fireworks launched from a safe location behind Merrimack High School and enjoyed by hundreds, including this comfortably seated couple, Arauto Nunes and his wife, Lucia Nunes, visitors from Brazil who attended the festivities with Merrimack’s Maria Garrette — Lucia’s sister — Maria’s husband, Mike Garrette, and the couple’s son, David, 11, who brought along the family’s well behaved dog, Oreo. Loretta Jackson photo

Enlarge

July 4 photos

See more pictures on Page 8.

Merrimack’s salute to the nation’s acquisition of independence was shared by hundreds of residents and visitors alike who indulged Monday, July 4, in festivities that included a pancake breakfast, a patriotic Fourth of July parade and a grand exhibition of nighttime fireworks that drew spectators of all ages to witness the vivid pyrotechnics.

The Merrimack Concert Association kicked off the festivities the previous evening with the annual town concert. The event featured numerous marching tunes and other favorites including a musical salute to each branch of the military.

The concert event, organized by Laurie Ludvigsen, executive director of the group’s board of directors, and presented by Leila Dutton, an accomplished music conductor, was relocated because of thunderstorms.

It was the spacious dining hall at Merrimack High School, instead of Abbie Griffin Park, that accommodated the association’s musicians and singers, along with members of the 94th Army Band, based in Windsor, Conn. All of the performers won rounds of hearty applause from folks in lawn chairs flanked by coolers and bags of snacks.

The next attraction on the roster of festivities was the annual pancake breakfast July 4 hosted by the Rotary Club of Merrimack, a nonprofit group of some 30 active men and women that directs proceeds from the breakfast to the club’s general fund. The fund is tapped throughout the year for many worthy causes – scholarships for high school graduates, sponsorships for kids to attend day camp and several other projects.

Dan Bittel, longtime chairman for the breakfast event, said the pancakes, waffles, strawberry toppings and generous dollops of whipped cream never fail to bring together families and friends, many of whom return to the event year after year. He and dozens of volunteers that day lovingly prepared and then bid farewell to 2,000 tasty sausages, 100 pounds of pancake mix and 8 gallons of eggs.

“It’s like having a college homecoming week in one day,” Bittel said. “All the residents come and meet friends – or relatives from out of town – that they may not have seen all year. They all leave here well fed and ready for the parade.”

The perimeter of the room offered other diversions, best observed after a hearty plate of flapjacks topped with locally produced maple syrup and plump, ripe berries. The MHS Robotics Team was on hand with remotely controlled contraptions that lifted inflated beach toys and placed them with pinpoint precision onto designated targets.

Elsewhere, magician Ken Wilson, a popular perennial volunteer entertainer at the event, confounded dozens with his card tricks and other mysterious feats of prestidigitation.

There too were information booths hosted by members of Interact, the high-school version of the Rotary Club, and members of the Leos, the student equivalent of the Lions Club. In another part of the hall, raffle tickets were on sale to help run the New England Parkinson’s Ride – a scenic bicycle event and fundraiser scheduled this year on Sept. 10 in Old Orchard Beach, Maine.

Soon, it was time for a last bite of pancake and one more sip of orange juice before diners commenced the trek to their preferred viewing spots along Daniel Webster Highway or Baboosic Lake Road, the route of the Independence Day Parade. Children and siblings sat on the curbs or on blankets spread on the grass near the library or anywhere the parade was expected. Moms, dads and other kin and friends commandeered lawn chairs and large, plastic coolers used for seating.

Sirens and bells and music soon were heard from afar – the starting point in the parking lot alongside the Tractor Supply Store in The Commons shopping center. Soon, the parade was progressing and the crowds cheering. A regal color guard and soldiers dressed in the replicated garb of Revolutionary War soldiers preceded a sharply stepping formation from the New Hampshire Police Association Pipes and Drums unit.

Motorcyclists from the American Legion Riders, the Combat Veterans Association, the Patriot Guard and other riding organizations made their way along, as did Merrimack police officials in a variety of vehicles. Motorcyclist and Merrimack Police Detective Chris Dowling rode aboard a magnificent, white police bike.

A bunting-decorated vehicle bearing other participants then made its appearance. Among them was Madeline Bennett, 97, a veteran Merrimack educator and the newly named holder of the Boston Post Cane, a finely crafted walking stick that by tradition since 1909 is bestowed upon the town’s eldest citizen. The longtime teacher and well-known library employee waved and smiled.

A monster truck named “Webslinger,” made its way down the streets. Vehicles from the vintage days of auto travel followed, as did clowns in miniature, funny cars from the Bektash Shriners. Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts from Den 7 took their turns as did a large group of spangled dancers from the Belinda Bridgeman Academy of Dance, followed by a group of sombrero-shaded musicians from the Muchachos Drum and Bugle Corps.

A bicycle brigade of children and teens from the community made its way down the parade route. The bicycles were festooned with red, white and blue pom-poms, miniature American flags and shiny, metallic streamers that caught the sun, intense on a day of high temps and high humidity.

The hot, summer day was perfect for those who took a quick detour to a concession stand operated by volunteers from the Knights of Columbus Queen of Peace Chapter 6725. There, former Grand Knight Bill Cashman and other volunteers offered hot dogs and chilled bottles of water and soft drinks for sale. Current Grand Knight Tom Lamb and several assistants operated a snow-cone machine that churned out icy delights of crushed snow, soon topped with a squirt of orange, berry or cherry flavoring.

Cashman left the stand and took to the streets with a heavy cooler filled with cold drinks. He hoisted its attached straps onto his shoulder and made his way into the crowd. The nominal charge of $1 a bottle added to a fund used by the group to provide scholarships and support for other community projects.

Eventually, a long string of military vehicles passed as did the parade’s final participants – personnel from the Merrimack Fire Rescue Department aboard apparatus ranging from an emergency medical ambulance to a fully equipped, state-of-the-art fire truck.

The parade was a happy memory come dusk when most who saw it – and others who did not – made their way to MHS for an evening of fireworks. The onlookers, numbering in the hundreds, must have been composed mostly of optimists, for a round of thunderstorms had drenched parts of the area less than an hour before show time.

The show went on uninterrupted. Desiree Locke, a graduate of the high school, now living in Nashua, watched the fireworks with some of her family – including her children, Colby, 10, and Calley, 6, busily swinging glow sticks and sparklers.

Locke said she missed a midway that was absent this year. The midway, previously held on the high school parking lot, was a place filled with games of chance, vendors of funnel cakes and a variety of large, inflatable attractions such as sliding boards and climbing walls. She allowed that funds are tight for many towns and that the midway was “an extra, not a necessity.”

“All in all, this is a great way to wind up the Fourth of July,” she said, just before a big, red starburst lit up the sky. “I’ve got a citronella candle, bug spray and we’re all glad to be here. It’s a time when all of us can take some time to respect all the people who made our country a country that is free.”