Fourth of July Scrapbook — pages 1-7
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RECIPE INSIDE! JULY 8, 2021
Back together again
WILLISTON’S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1985
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Independence Day serves as community reunion BY JASON STARR Observer staff For weeks this spring, Gov. Phil Scott talked up the Fourth of July as the “return-to-normal” date in Vermont after 15 months of pandemic restrictions. But the vaccination of Vermonters went faster than expected, and Scott lifted the state’s public health emergency orders in June. Still, at least in Williston, this year’s Independence Day celebration felt like the first real community reunion since COVID-19 initially forced us apart early last year. A much-anticipated and only slightly scaled back parade went off Saturday morning just before rain set in. Skies cleared later for the evening’s activities, including the Deb Beckett Memorial 5K race, an ice cream social hosted by the Williston Federated Church, a concert on the Village Green by the Williston Town Band and a fireworks display at Williston Community Park. Friday’s Dorothy Alling Memorial Library book sale was the only rain cancellation. The Ice Cream Social and Town Band concert originally scheduled for Friday were both postponed one day. “We always get love going down the parade route, but this year, it was just this outpouring,” said Lynn Blevins, a member of
Williston was once again able to celebrate the Fourth of July in style after months of pandemic restrictions, on Saturday. The parade route once again resounded with the sound of marching bands and fire engine sirens as the parade wound its way through town; the Williston Town Band performed live for an appreciative audience; and fireworks once again lit up the night sky in celebration. OBSERVER PHOTOS BY AL FREY
the Sue Pasco Memorial Williston Precision Lawn Chair March and Drill Team, always a memorable part of the parade. “It’s the comfort of seeing the familiar, from before the pandemic. I think we’re
all having those experiences right now, like ‘this is how life used to be. These are the things that we enjoyed, and here they are again!’” Parade starter Tony Lamb joked about a town ordinance that
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
as they lined Williston Road. Led by Boy Scout Troop 692, the parade left Johnson Farm Saturday morning and proceedsee FOURTH page 24
Superintendent Sanchez gets started BY JASON STARR Observer staff
Rene Sanchez is the new Champlain Valley School District superintendent.
says it can’t rain on the Fourth of July parade. But after Friday’s book sale cancellation and other event postponements, spectators and parade participants kept a close eye on the low gray clouds
Rene Sanchez is settling into his new office in Shelburne, meeting people in the five towns that make up the Champlain Valley School District and talking with fellow school district administrators. It is his first full week as the school district’s superintendent. Sanchez was hired to succeed Elaine Pinckney after a nation-
al search. He moved from South Bend, Ind., where he was an assistant school superintendent. He previously worked as a high school principal in his home state of Texas. Sanchez, along with his wife — a native of Vermont and UVM graduate — and their three children, signed a contract last week on a home in Williston after searching in a tight Champlain Valley home-buying market. He attended the Williston Fourth of
July parade Saturday for a first interaction with residents. He then went to the Hinesburg Fourth parade Sunday, and plans meetand-greets in Charlotte and at the Shelburne Farmers’ Market later this week. “Everyone I’ve met has been very welcoming, and I can really tell that my family and I are going to fit in very well here,” Sanchez said. “The cordialness, the way people treat one another, it feels see SANCHEZ page 24