By Laurie O’Neill — [email protected]
What’s red, white, and blue all over?
Concord250 hopes it will be the town — decked out this April in banners and bunting.
Organizers of the townwide celebration are encouraging residents “to dress up their houses, mailboxes, front porches, windows, dogs, and whatever might be visible from the street,” says Holly Cratsley, chair of the Concord250 Community Participation Subcommittee, which is sponsoring a series of workshops to help residents decorate for the occasion.
Participants who submit a photo of their decorations will be entered into a raffle on April 20 and could win one of several prizes donated by Concord shops and restaurants.
“This is not a competition but hopefully a collective effort to dress up the town for ourselves and our visitors,” says Cratsley.
If a household is short on materials to create decorations, the committee is offering free workshops at which attendees can pick up materials and learn how to make items such as a patriotic bow for a mailbox, a wreath for a front door, and a lantern silhouette for a window.
‘A more majestic flag’
The subcommittee has also arranged to replace the flag in Monument Square with a larger one. “We are celebrating the founding of the United States, and a more majestic flag seemed fitting,” says Cratsley.
Her subcommittee contacted the Concord Independent Battery, which adopted the project, studying the history of the pole and finding an engineer to make sure it could support a larger flag.
The Battery is presenting a check to the Select Board for the new flag as its contribution to the 250th, according to Cratsley.
The Battery and the fire department will participate in an 11 a.m. ceremony on April 12, during which the old flag will be lowered and a new flag will be run up the pole while a bugler plays “To the Colors.”
Decorating workshops will be held Wednesday, April 2, 4-5 p.m. at Fowler Library, 1322 Main Street (ages 12 and under; reserve at concordlibrary.org); Thursday, April 3, 9 a.m.-12 p.m. at Art for All, 152 Commonwealth Avenue (all ages); Saturday, April 5, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. at Art for All (all ages); and Thursday, April 10, 10-11 a.m. at the Council on Aging, 1276 Main Street (reserve by calling the COA at (978) 318-3020).
To participate in the lottery, submit photos to [email protected] or DM @concordgetready on Instagram.
