7 am:
The Flag is honored by the local Girl Scouts with a flag raising to officially begin Children's Day, followed by the firing of the cannon to let Mt Tabor know that they day has begun.
Immediately following, the volunteers for the Midway begin the long process of putting together the Midway as the others leave for breakfast. One by one, neighbors emerge from thier
homes to make the magic of Children's Day happen.
8:15 am:
Athletic Event Registration begins at 8:15 am until 9 am, when the games begin!
9am :
Everyone gets a participation ribbon and placement ribbons are awarded to the athletes after each event.
Awards are then given for overall athletic and sportsmanship at the Midway during the awards ceremony for both the
athletic events, the house decorating event and the floats.
12:15 pm:
CD Parade Line up at the Post Office. Registration and Check in happens here for all those who have taken the
time to create their float. Floats are accompanied by decorated bicycles, baby carriages and costumes. This year, my
kids got together and made their own float with a borrowed float bed and some advice from the Dad of their friend.
They won first place! :)
1:00 pm:
The Parade begins! Participants have a grueling path to take as the parade route is very hilly in some spots. I usually
enjoy taking a seat, right in front of my house to watch the parade. I personally had enough of the hills during the 5k.
The floats vary from small to amazingly huge! This year, we saw Godzilla, Men in Black, an amazing Indian Elephant,
Angry Birds, a luchador ring, to name a few. It was fun to watch as it is every year.
1:30 pm:The Midway fun begins! There are pony rides, raffles, games, food, music and the Children's Day Art Show. There is
even free ice cream for the kids who participate in the parade, donated by the Mount Tabor Historical Society!
There are a lot of free activities for the kids, like bubbles, balloon launching, chalk, puzzles, corn sifting, jump rope,
and the like. There are midway games you can play by purchasing tickets, including the strong man anvil game,
and other games of skill. There is a food stand operated by and to benefit the volunteer Mt Tabor Fire Department.
4:30 pm The midway closes down for the day and everyone goes home for dinner. Some packing away of the Midway begins.
7 pm:
Assembly for the Evening Parade. All those who placed as a winner in their category march yet again and are joined by extremely loud local Firefighters who love to blast their sirens. (This is when I usually retreat to the house) WAY too loud for even me!! (If you can believe that)
7:15 pm:
The parade is fun and is usually accompanied by some fun water hose war that usually goes on, right on my corner. For years, there has been a water fight between a certain group of people ( I am guessing friend and relatives of the fire fighters) who try to have a water fight with the fire fighters. It is quite comical. I will have to take pictures next year.
7:45 pm:
Lowering of the Colors
The Mt Tabor Fire Department has a ceremony with the Pastor of the Methodist Church in town, who blesses our activities for the day.
7:50 pm:
The Francis X Wentworth Sr. Memorial Concert
This concert is given every year by the Wentworth Family. One of the largest families in Mt Tabor history, JG Wentworth being one of the Wentworth clan, together with his family, donate money toward our annual concert. (You may recognize JG from his commercials "I want my money and I want it NOW!" It is a gift from their family to the town of Mt Tabor. This year, we were visited by "The Zombies" and friends. It was a great concert, followed by awesome fireworks (the best I have seen this year) and neighborly fun, including free glow stick necklaces for all!
This year's Children's Day was a great success.
Loudly yours,
Alicia
ps- We have been accused of being a little too quiet in our exposure of Children's Day as we limit our weekend to Mt Tabor residents and their guests. Some might think it true, but you must admit, the whole weekend is provided by donations, dedication, sweat and time by our town's neighbors, plus, we don't have a lot of space to house all of the surrounding towns, so we have and will remain on the quiet side about inviting others to join us. I know it kind of stinks, but it is what it is. :)
