As sad as it was not to have the Warren Fourth of July parade and celebration in Warren Village this year, community members went all out on staying connected.
The Warren Prayer Flags project was a homegrown grassroots effort to create connection and community by asking people to create flags to be strung in Warren Village. It was wildly successful, with hundreds of messages of hope and love, racial justice, humor, solidarity and much more adorning the village.
In the days prior to the flags being installed by the Warren Fire Department and volunteers, community members, the Mad River Valley Rotary, George Schenk and others, installed simple, smaller banners with stars along Route 100 from Moretown to Warren. They created a connection from one town to the next, leading to the prayer flags.
On July 4 an ad hoc group of Waitsfield neighbors staged a small (six floats) pop-up parade on Waitsfield Common Road that bikers and walkers and those who live on the road as well as those who were driving on the road could enjoy. Organizers wanted it to be something for local kids to be involved in as a way for them to have fun and share in a communal experience and it was very successful, albeit small for safety’s sake.
Also on July 4, Eddie Merma and his sculpture students set up an art installation at the Lareau Farm featuring the sculptures students had made as part of this summer’s camps. The colorful exhibit is the creation of 10 campers who spent a week dreaming up their art, constructing them and assembling them onsite to entertain community members.
On July 7, the Big Picture hosted a sold out, socially-distanced concert by The Grift that did a lot to raise collective and community spirits. Judging by the smiles on the faces of people viewing and visiting and attending these events, sharing things together, while physically apart can go a long way towards combating the loss of regular physical and social interaction with each other.
As the pandemic drags on, we’re learning that there are ways to safely stay and be connected to each other which we all need for our emotional well being.
Well done folks.
