A week from Saturday, somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 people will line Ayer Road and Mass. Ave. to watch the parade, and then head to the Bromfield School field to cheer the greased pole climbers, eat pie, or join a three-legged race. The Fourth of July is one of those days when Harvard is unmistakably itself. This year, with the nation marking 250 years of independence, it seems particularly important to get it right. But it does not come together on its own.
The Fourth of July Committee is asking for help. The committee is three people, a handful of year-round volunteers, and whoever shows up on the day. As Fourth of July Committee Chair Christopher Chalifoux reports in his letter to the editor, volunteers are needed to help set up the parade, judge the bicycle decoration contest, and monitor field events. The work is not hard, and the reward is a front-row seat to one of the best days of the year in this town.
There is also a specific opportunity for someone with a voice. Last year, rising Bromfield 10th-grader Siwoo Kim sang the national anthem before the field events began. The committee needs someone to fill that role this year. If you have been looking for a reason to step up to a microphone in front of your neighbors, contact committee chair Chalifoux at cchalifoux01451@gmail.com.
For everyone else, signing up to volunteer takes two minutes. Go to harvard4thofjuly.org, click “Support” in the upper right corner, select “Volunteer” from the drop-down list, and click the sign-up link in the first paragraph.
The committee starts planning in January. They arrange the floats, coordinate the antique cars, set up the field games, recruit the pie-eating judges, and handle a hundred other details so that Harvard has a parade worth watching. They do it because they love this town. A few hours of help on July 4 is a small thing to ask in return—especially this year.