>Milford seems to be rallying again to help defray the costs of the annual Labor Day parade, and we aren’t surprised. It’s a great parade, and it costs money to put it on. Milford residents and businesses know that, so they’re helping.

"Already we are seeing donations com­ing in at a promising rate," said Doug Bi­anchi, quartermaster of Milford’s Harley- Sanford VFW Post 4368, which established a fundraising effort to cover the parade’s costs, which are estimated to be $12,000.

The VFW can’t handle that on its own. The post used to pick up the entire tab, but those days are gone. And you know what? They should be gone. This is an event that benefits the entire town, including local businesses that see an influx of folks on Labor Day. It’s business that they might not get if there were no parade, so kicking in a bit seems reasonable and logical.

The post does get some funding from the town, but Steve Sears, the local VFW commander, said, "The majority of the costs will have to be covered by individ­ual donations made by local citizens and businesses."

Already, Buchanan Construction Co. of Wilton donated $250, and that’s great. Clearly, that donation came out of the goodness of the hearts of the people who run the company because it’s unlikely that Buchanan Construction will see a lot of Labor Day parade walk-in trade. Jim Buchanan, the company’s president, stepped up, and should be applauded for doing so. We can’t think of anything that’s in it for him except the feeling of having done something good.

We trust that many other local companies will jump in, and we hope individuals will, too. To help out, you can contact the VFW at 673-9817 or vfwpost4368@gmail.com.

You go to the parade. Your kids love the parade. And in a presidential election year in a swing state, you can never tell who might show up.

We had Barack Obama in 2007, driv­ing his Secret Service contingent nuts by jumping out of his car and shaking hands with people on the Oval. Even Mitt Romney was there that year, but he just marched along the route and waved, which is fine. Of course we’ve always won­dered if he didn’t get the 2008 Republican presidential nomination because he just marched along the route and waved in­stead of doing the Obama semi-mosh.

Anyway, help in any way you can. The VFW does a great job, the parade is a heck of a lot of fun, this year we can at least an­ticipate a presidential candidate or two, and even if neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump bothers to come, their sup­porters will be there marching and chant­ing and giving out candy and stickers.

You should be there, too.