The Barrington 4th of July parade kicks off at 10 a.m. tomorrow, Thursday, July 4th. The theme for this year’s parade is “America, Land of Hopes and Dreams – Homegrown in Barrington” and they’ve planned some exciting entertainment and highlights for this year’s parade.
But the very first float you’ll see in the parade this year, right behind area veterans leading the way, is the Barrington High School girls tennis team’s Food Drive truck. The team coach who helped start the drive and BHS grad Rebecca Peterson says, “If everyone from the community brought one non-perishable, non-expired food item to tomorrow’s parade, that would go a long way toward helping families seeking food assistance in the Barrington area.”
This will be the fourth year that the parade committee has built the food drive into Barrington’s parade and the second year in a row with that drive sponsored by Heinen’s Fine Foods. Associates from Heinen’s along with the BHS girls tennis team will be pushing shopping carts to collect non-perishable food donations brought by parade-goers along the route. Last year, they collected 3,000 pounds of food and all donations are delivered to the Barrington and Cuba Township food pantries immediately following the parade.
Over 75 groups will be participating in this year’s parade, including businesses, civic organizations, students, veterans and more. The parade starts at Barrington High School, heads east on Main Street and ends at the Barrington 4th Festival grounds at the north Metra commuter lot downtown.
The parade committee’s marketing director, Kristin Leese, says they chose to add the words “Homegrown in Barrington” to put the focus back on Barrington…
“Because we all feel it’s a great place to live. There are educational opportunities, there are business opportunities and people support each other here. Our theme just represents that Barrington, like America, is also a place of hopes and dreams.” And the theme is also reflected in the winning design for this year’s Parade Poster Contest, created by Kailey J. from South Barrington.
In keeping with the “Homegrown in Barrington” theme, the parade committee selected local businesswoman and “Train Lady”, Elaine Silets as the Grand Marshal of this year’s parade. “We chose her as the Grand Marshal because she is a local businesswoman who founded and built her landscape design business, Huff & Puff Industries, here in the Barrington area and we thought she would be a good representation of the theme.”
They’re also honoring several exemplary students who will have a special place in this year’s parade, like 7th-grade Doodle 4 Google contest finalist, Meg Mehta…
and Scripps National Spelling Bee second place winner, also from Station Meddle School, Pranav Sivakumar.
Some of the guest performers taking part in this year’s parade include the Cross Wind Jazz Band, Dundee Scottish Pipes Band, Felix and Fingers Dueling Pianos, Potts and Pans Steel Drum Band, fire jugglers and a stilt walker!
If you’d like more information, visit the event websites at BarringtonParade.com and Barrington4thofJuly.com.
We will be sharing video coverage of the Barrington 4th of July festivities this week at 365Barrington.com, including the parade and 4th of July Festival.
