Well, last week I missed my deadline for my column, so I’m writing this because I wanted to make sure I got this information to readers in advance of the July 4th parade.

The 39th annual Madison Independence Day Parade has a very special focus: Celebrating our Olympic athletes. Our small town had three athletes who grew up here and went on to compete in last year’s Winter Olympics: Kiley McKinnon, Zach Donohue, and Mac Bohonnon. The Town of Madison gained international recognition for that fact, and now we are honoring them as grand marshals of the July 4th parade. Even though they live in Utah now, where they do their training, Mac and Kiley will return to Madison for the parade. Zach lives in Montreal and work responsibilities will prevent him from getting back, but he will be here in spirit.

In addition to honoring these athletes, we’re going to take this opportunity to recognize our successful sports programs at Daniel Hand High School. This past year they won four state titles, eight conference championships, and six divisional titles, so all the student-athletes from our sports programs are invited to march. Athletic Director Craig Semple is working with the coaches to help make this happen.

Another program that has flourished and grown very successfully over the last few years is Unified Sports. Under the direction of Coach Matt Link and in conjunction with the Special Education Parent Teacher Organization (SEPTO) these special education students have distinguished themselves as athletes and will be marching along with everyone else.

Finally, Brett Glaser, gold medalist in tennis in the Special Olympics (whom I coached in Little League) has been invited to march as well, but he’ll be competing in the National Summer Special Olympic Games. We wish him the best of luck!

First Selectman Tom Banisch

Madison