SOUTHWICK — The Southwick Civic Fund will host its annual Southwick Farm Parade along College Highway this Saturday. It will feature tractors, farm equipment, cows, horses, goats, chickens, dogs, bunnies and a few cats.
The parade begins at 2 p.m. from the Southwick Florist area of Routes 10 and 202 and will travel south toward Town Hall. Civic Fund President Joe Deedy said, “This is our fifth year coordinating this parade. My hope is that we don’t get much rain and the kids come out and enjoy it. Southwick is a great little town for it, and we’re still a farming community.”
Anyone with pets, farm animals or farm equipment is welcome to register to participate in the parade. Similar animals will be grouped together. Participants pay a fee of $20, all of which goes to the go to the Polverari-Southwick Animal Shelter. Applications to enter can be found at www.southwickcivicfund.org/farm-parade.
The parade will also feature both the Powder Mill Middle School and Southwick Regional School marching bands this year.
The idea for this parade came from Southwick resident Bobby Polverari, who built the animal shelter. He suggested to the Civic Fund that it should organize a farm parade after seeing one in another town.
“I love animals,” Polverari said. “I thought, let’s show off our dogs, cats, horses and cattle. That’s how we came up with the idea to have a little farm parade.”
The first parade was in fall 2018.
“It’s become a great thing,” Polverari said. “If we get the decent weather, we will have a few thousand people, and hopefully it will be as good as it has been in the past. I’m looking forward to seeing Joe Deedy and his group continue it, because it’s a lot of work and he has been willing to take it on, and it’s going to be great.”
Deedy added, “Small-town USA is slowly going away, and we’re seeing fewer parades. We’re fortunate that we can have events for our community and surrounding towns, so we’ll continue this tradition as long as we can afford it.”
Participating animals must be accompanied by a handler, and handlers under 18 must be accompanied by an adult. Vehicles may be current or antique, and must be farm-related, and participants may not display political themes or slogans. Participants must be lined up by 1:30 p.m.
