Just after the town clock struck 10 last Saturday morning, three Harvard police cruisers with sirens blaring led the Fourth of July parade down Ayer Road from Town Hall. Directly behind the cruisers came a group of military veterans carrying the flags of Massachusetts and the United States.
Officer Dusty rides down Mass Ave. as the Grand Marshal of the parade with her partner Detective Daniele Fortunato. MORE PHOTOS
Detective Daniele Fortunato of the Harvard police and her canine partner, Officer Dusty, were honored as the grand marshals for their service to the community. Riding in a black Mercedes convertible and accompanied by Fortunato’s children, they drew a warm welcome from the crowd.
The members of Harvard’s Scout troops are regular parade participants. The Girl Scouts displayed a banner adorned with the Liberty Bell and the words “Let Freedom Ring,” the theme the Fourth of July Committee had chosen for this year. The Boy Scouts marched later in the parade, carrying both the Scout flag and the American flag.
Supporters of Harvard’s softball players carried a large banner proclaiming “Rock On,” and their float carried the band Phun Bucket, a group of musical dads who formed the band in 2019. Also aboard the float were some two dozen young softball players. Phun Bucket capped their performance, appropriately, with a rousing rendition of John Fogerty’s “Centerfield.”
Another float dedicated to youth sports was the work of the Bromfield Acton-Boxborough rowing team. With its blue-painted boat racks, almost like the wooden masts of a tall ship, the float had a very nautical look.
Bromfield graduate Rachel Molnar sings the national anthem to kick off the festivities. (Photos by Lisa Aciukewicz)
The themes of independence and self-government featured in the parade, too. Select Board members Rich Maiore and Don Ludwig were among the marchers, as were Harvard’s two members of the state Legislature—Rep. Dan Sena and Sen. Jamie Eldridge. Harvard’s Republican Town Committee rode in a black pickup with an inflatable elephant perched atop it.
Members of Harvard’s League of Women Voters carried signs protesting the recent Supreme Court decision: “Roe is gone—what is next?” And a group supporting Dean Tran, a Republican candidate for Congress, had a good turnout, although few Harvard residents were in the group.
The Nashoba Valley Concert Band kept marchers stepping along briskly. The band, with its volunteer members from several surrounding towns, is based in Shirley but is a regular participant in Harvard parades.
Tractors pulled two floats from Carlson Orchards, each with a much-larger-than-life apple on it. The second float carried some of the workers who come to Harvard to pick the town’s fruit crops.
The ever-popular antique cars followed—from a Volkswagen bug and a BMW Isetta with its single door on the car’s front (both from the 1960s) to an Abbott-Detroit perhaps 50 years older. From somewhere in the line, an “oogah” horn sounded every now and then, bringing applause from the crowd.
The Fire Department rounded out the parade with eight engines rolling by, their sirens at full volume. Banners and signs on the engines proclaimed the Harvard firefighters the 2022 Wachusett Muster League champions.
Many who lined the streets to watch the parade followed the last fire truck to the field in front of the library for a ceremony and games.
As the five-member honor guard led by Army veteran Carl Sciple saluted, a contingent of Boy Scouts raised the American flag at the Old Bromfield flagpole. Bromfield grad Rachel Molnar sang the national anthem and Caroline Hentz, daughter of Fourth of July Committee Chair Anne Hentz, sang “Proud To Be an American.” Both were performing for the second consecutive year. By the time Anne Hentz concluded the ceremonies with thanks to the Harvard DPW and event sponsors, a line for food at the Lions Club concession stand stretched halfway across the field.
Then it was time for fun and games, from greased pole to sack races to parent-child relays and more, with Julian Iverson as master of ceremonies. There was no pie-eating contest. Some complained that this year’s pole was too greasy, making it impossible for anyone to win the money at the top. Hentz told the Press the committee had come close to canceling the games for lack of volunteers to staff them.
The under-5 age group rushes out to scoop up as much candy as possible during the candy scramble, part of the field events. (Photo by Thomas Kilian)
By 2 p.m. the field had begun to empty. Temperatures rose into the upper 70s and the afternoon turned sticky, but the forecasted severe weather never materialized.
Harvard fireworks: A regional event
Harvard’s Fourth of July parade and games—held this year on July 2—are seen by many as an affirmation of the town’s sense of community (see The Press Asks), but the concert and fireworks display at Fruitlands has become a decidedly regional event, drawing visitors this year from as far away as Boston and points west. With good weather and no other public fireworks available in the area, a large turnout seemed assured.
Attendees began arriving as early as 4 p.m. Harvard Police Chief James Babu said cars continued to arrive after 10 p.m., long after the fireworks had concluded. At one point, the line of cars waiting to park stretched past Depot Road down Old Shirley Road toward Route 111. Many attendees traveled to the site on one of the three buses rented by the Fourth of July Committee. Bus tickets were $5 apiece. By night’s end, 205 had been sold.
The parking lot at Fruitlands was full by 8 p.m., after which police and Lions Club volunteers directed vehicles to spots on both sides of Prospect Hill Road. By the time fireworks began at 9:15 p.m., the line of parked cars extended as far as Still River village.
Estimates of the size of the crowd were all over the map. Hentz told the Press Tuesday morning she thought the number had exceeded 7,000; Chief Babu and others estimated between 5,000 and 5,500. Whatever the number, everyone seemed to be having a good time.
Families arrived carting folding chairs, tables, picnic blankets, food, and children, filling any available space on the west-facing slopes of the museum grounds. There were long lines at food stands offering fried dough, lemonade, and chicken fingers, and an even longer line for the 18 port-a-potties behind Fruitlands’ offices. On the patio outside the Hyve Cafe, a canasta game was underway. On the lower field in front of the Fruitlands’ soundstage, adults and children danced to the music of the Rafters with Don Sugai, and the Barn Burners. Harvard resident Theresa Curran made an appearance to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Last to take the stage was Ashley Jordan and her band. “I was born and raised in this beautiful town,” she declared before beginning her supercharged rendition of “Jolene.” As the sun sank below the horizon, now streaked with clouds and contrails against a blood orange sky, glo sticks and beaded necklaces—green, blue, red—appeared among the crowd. A smattering of red and blue balloons, lit from within, floated like wandering planets between outstretched hands. A new quarter moon appeared overhead.
By 9 p.m. the crowd was ready for fireworks. Jordan launched into an upbeat “Sweet Home Alabama,” followed by “Sweet Caroline,” with the crowd echoing “So good, so good,” and finally “I’m Shipping Up to Boston,” made famous by the Dropkick Murphys, with amplified fiddle and drums. Her rousing performance was joined at 9:15 p.m. by the first boom and burst of fireworks, and the sky suddenly filled with the light and sound—pops, crackles, sizzles and bam-bam-bams—of dazzling pyrotechnics, ending 15 minutes later with a crescendo of multicolored bursts, one after another, that felt more like a leap to hyperspace than fireworks. A “weeping willow” shell let loose a shower of gold, followed by a final boom, and the show was over.
Hentz reported that many attendees told her as they exited that it was the best fireworks they’d seen in Harvard. Those fireworks were the work of Central Maine Pyrotechnics, based in Farmington, Maine, which also produced July 4 shows in Portland, Maine, and dozens of other towns in New England the same night.
After the show, attendees headed for their cars, some walking from Fruitlands as far as Still River Road. All three buses filled within minutes, but before they could move, police had to clear a path, a process that took 15 to 20 minutes. The first load of bus passengers was dropped off at the General Store around 10 p.m., walking from there to their cars at Bromfield.
Chief Babu said he and the 15 officers on the scene (including three from Lancaster) were able to clear the road and Fruitlands parking area by 10:30 p.m., which he said was an accomplishment given the number of cars involved. He told the Press there had been one incident of road rage in the lot and a couple of minor medical emergencies, none of which required transport to a hospital, but otherwise the night was incident free.
The job of cleaning Fruitlands was done by members of the boys soccer team Tuesday morning, under the direction of Coach Alex Horne and former coach emeritus Tom Hill. The team filled five large trash bags, Horne reported. “The boys always get a kick out of the miscellaneous items we find: about 10 pairs of sunglasses, cash, headlamps, earmuffs, and a few other things.”
A costly event, self-funded
The events of Harvard’s Fourth of July holiday are entirely volunteer-driven and self-funded. The town provides the committee with no money. Expenses, of which there are many, are defrayed by contributions, sponsorships, T-shirt and tote bag sales, and fees collected at the annual concert and fireworks display. Tents and supplies for events at the field cost thousands of dollars, Fourth of July Committee Chair Hentz told the Press. The night’s three buses cost $595 apiece, $200 more than in previous years. Fireworks cost $15,000, a $2,000 increase over 2019, and Fruitlands charged $5,000 for use of its grounds, a $3,000 increase over 2019. Performers receive a nominal fee.
Recruiting volunteers is the biggest problem the committee faces, says Hentz. The committee adds to its crew by donating to other groups to enlist their help. “Our money doesn’t just go to buy fireworks. It also helps the soccer team and those who benefit from the work the Lions Club does managing the parking of vehicles.” In addition, the Iverson family stepped up to take on the field events this year. Josh and Emma Iverson coordinated the activities and their children pitched in.
Somehow Hentz and her three stalwarts on the Fourth of July Committee—Chris Chalifoux, Chris Conner, and Connie Barton—make it work. “We will take a few weeks off to enjoy the summer and then start planning for next year’s event,” Hentz wrote in a Wednesday email to the Press.
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