We hope you had an *utterly* fantastic 4th of July this year—here in Poultney we sure did! 🇺🇸🐄 It’s no secret that Vermont has its share of quirky 4th of July parades, though the parade in Poultney is quite the hidden gem, marching down our historic Main Street where spectators can catch candy or enjoy one of our local Bluegrass bands performing along the street.
The theme this year was “Remembering the Past, Honoring the Future” and we decided to lean into an agriculture theme: “Farm to Trails!” To pull it off, we built a replica of the Fairgrounds Barn, crafted cardboard cow heads for bike riders, painted signs, and brainstormed cow costumes at our annual float building party held the evening before the parade. Arden Conine, the artist of the original mural on the Fairgrounds barn, was kind enough to recreate her design on our cardboard barn which was carefully crafted by our Executive Director, Courtney Behnken and her husband Luke. Arden also crocheted a large cow utter which was quite the sight to behold!
When parade day arrived, the SVT community showed up in style with all kinds of funky costumes—from inflatable cows to a corn cob costume and plenty of cow onesies! As we marched along, there were cow bells ringing, spectators mooing, and bike wheelies galore as we soaked in the beautiful weather and marched along the route. All in all, the parade crew had a great time celebrating with our local community. Nothing beats small-town energy, creative floats, and a whole lot of hometown pride!
Thanks to everyone for showing up, celebrating, and being part of what makes the Slate Valley so special 🙌💚
