Back in April, Debbie Peluse couldn’t have felt more dismay than when she read the news that the Guilford Fair Parade was to be canceled, for the second year in a row – so she made the effort to make sure that wouldn’t happen. And it worked. Thanks to Debbie, the 2021 Guilford Fair Parade is back on, set for Saturday, Sept. 18, rain or shine.

Due to the need for advance planning at a time when gathering crowds safely was still a concern, the parade’s former organizational group, Guilford Rotary, had to decide back in April not to hold a 2021 parade and notified the public of the tough decision. The news was a bit confusing to Debbie, as she knew that the Guilford Fair, a separate event run by the Guilford Agricultural Society, was coming back for its full fair run in 2021. The Guilford Fair is set for Sept. 17, 18 and 19 at the Guilford fairgrounds.

“At that time, I remember thinking, ‘Well, gee, they’re having the fair...’,” says Debbie. “I know it’s two different organizations, but that seemed a little odd. I thought about it for a while, and as the weeks went by, there were more events that were happening. So I checked with the Selectman’s office first to find out if there was some regulation that a parade couldn’t be held, and they referred me to the Health Department.”

Once Debbie was assured by the Town that a parade would be among those events that could be safely gathered in September, she picked up the phone and contacted Nancy Bishop, the Rotary’s parade organizer of several years. Bishop explained to Debbie that early organizational timing requirements were a key reason for Rotary’s decision to have to cancel the 2021 parade.

“And the reason it was decided in April is because ordinarily that’s when they start the planning. They have to contact the fife and drum corps, in particular. So when it appeared in April that they didn’t think it looked like it would be okay to have a parade, they decided not to hold it,” says Debbie, who also learned that, despite her findings that it would be safe to hold the parade in September, “... it seemed now that it may be too late. I said, ‘Oh my goodness — that would be a shame.’”

The conversation also helped Debbie to recognize that Rotary had a great parade organizational framework and existing contacts list in place. So she decided to try to save the parade.

“I love the parade enough to jump in when it looked like there wasn’t going to be a parade,” says Debbie. “Because Nancy had so much information, I said I would do it. Then I reached out to a number of my friends and to my daughter, to see if she, as the younger generation, could give me any names. And that’s how I came up with the steering committee.”

Debbie’s daughter, Amy Earls, is a Guilford resident and mom of three. The 2021 Guilford Fair Parade steering committee includes Debbie as chairperson, Lauren Gunningsmith, Dee Jacob, Bob Jacob, Nicole Smith and Chris Fappiano, “...with lots of guidance from Nancy Bishop in this transition year,” says Debbie.

The committee formed up in May and soon began reaching out to the many musical units and other parade groups and organization contacts from past parades.

“That all happened within a couple of days,” says Debbie. “Because Nancy had organized very well over the past years, our committee didn’t have to start out recreating the parade from scratch.”

One of the first new tasks the committee took on was to come up with the theme name of 2021 Guilford Fair Parade, “Moving Ahead to the Future.”

Following the depths of the pandemic and with the emerging return to a pre-pandemic world, “...everything feels like we can now move forward,” says Debbie.

At the same time, the parade committee wanted to recognize those who helped the community through the pandemic and came up with a very special way to do just that.

“Instead of having one Grand Marshal we’re actually having 12 Grand Marshals, each representing a group of people that really helped the town get through the pandemic,” says Debbie.

There will be representatives covering the areas of education, local business, non-profits, science/technology, volunteers, farmers, police, firefighters, EMTs, health care workers, and the Town of Guilford.

“They’ve all said yes,” says Debbie of each group contacted. “We don’t have names of individual people yet, but there will be 12 Grand Marshals representing those groups, and they will be marching at the beginning of parade.”

The steering committee has a few more items on its wish list, ranging from more units signing on to join the parade to volunteers to assist at the event and sponsors who can help support parade expenses. Application information and much more can be found online at http://www.guilfordfairparade.com. To make a monetary donation, send an email to guilfordfairparade1@gmail.com

Taking on the Guilford Fair Parade

For Debbie, there is perhaps no greater Guilford event than the Guilford Fair Parade. In fact, she hasn’t missed one since she and her husband, Charlie, moved to town in 1970.

“I know that we went to the parade early in the ‘70s before we had children. We live on Boston Street and with both our children we’d walk to the fairgrounds every year, and we’d go to the parade. I marched with the Guilford Scouts when my daughter was in it and with the fourth-grade float when my son was in fourth-grade,” says Debbie of her daughter, Amy, and son, Michael.

In fact, Debbie and Charlie even made their way out to watch the parade in a torrential downpour, she recalls.

“In 2004 it poured. It poured! But two other members of this present committee and myself and my husband all remember we went down, and there was a parade. It was very short! We stood under an awning of one of the stores,” says Debbie.

Now, Debbie’s grandchildren, Scarlet, Cordelia, and Zachary, are the next generation of family members to live in Guilford and enjoy the fair and parade.

“That was another thing — Cordelia is going to be in fourth-grade in September, so I did think of that,” says Debbie of taking on the effort to run the 2021 parade. “So hopefully, she’ll be on a (fourth-grade school) float in September!”

Debbie says that, to date, 38 different units have already signed up to participate in the 2021 Guilford Fair Parade; but she’s hoping for many more. Thanks to contact information shared by Bishop, the committee’s already reached out to 200 different organizations and groups that have participated in past parades. Those who have not been contacted can apply online or email the fair committee for more information.

From 2015 through 2019, Guilford Fair parades have had an average of 65 to 75 units each year, although in 2019 it had 95 join in, says Debbie.

Keeping a Tradition Marching

As an active member of the Guilford Keeping Society during all her years as a Guilford resident, Debbie also knew how to find a bit of history to share about the Guilford Fair Parade.

“The first parade was at the first Fair in 1859,” she notes, attributing the following details to Guilford municipal historian Joel Helander’s pamphlet, Guilford Fair, A Brief History: “It was a grand success, featuring 426 yoke of oxen with William Fowler as marshal and moving to the inspiring music of fife and drum. Forty young men rode on horseback, and decorated carts and wagons carried an array of agricultural products.”

Debbie also researched the Shore Line Times for information on the 1921 parade, 100 years ago.

“It was described as the ‘best ever’ parade, especially for its length. The number of marchers and animals extended almost completely around the Green — 58 yoke of oxen participated from Guilford, Madison, and Old Saybrook. The parade marched twice around the Green beginning with the police and a ‘platoon of young ladies on horseback,’” she shares.

Debbie also notes the parade has had a number of volunteer organizers step up to keep it running since 1977 when the Guilford Agricultural Society announced it would no longer organize the parade. She credits a long-serving line of citizens through the years including Dale Freidag, Gil and Gladys Lombard, Stephen Page, Frank Ifkovic, Calvin “Woody” Page, and Todd Page and, beginning in 2015, volunteers of the Guilford Rotary, including Nancy Bishop.

For her part, Debbie says she is prepared to continue to help organize the parade in the coming years, so that a Guilford tradition can continue for the community to enjoy.

“It’s the biggest parade in town,” says Debbie. “For so many people, if you’re living in town for any length of time, you’re going to know people who are in the parade; whether it’s through the library or a sports group or a school or other group.”