The Laurel Parade marked the 75th anniversary of the Laurel Festival here in Winsted, and that was this year's theme for the parade. HLWA is celebrating our 50th anniversary and felt it would be very appropriate to display a decorated antique boat in the parade. Jack Rouleau knew just which boat could be used to represent 50 years of our organization. The boat was driven by its owner, Frank McCarty. There was some discussion as to who should ride in this float. We as a board felt the past presidents from years ago should represent HLWA in the present. We asked Joe Cadrain, Norm Southergill and Archie Perez to ride in this boat. Much coaxing was necessary to entice these past presidents to participate, but once they saw the boat, they could not resist. They honored us by accompanying Dick Labich, our current president, on the float. Clare Stevens, who has a prolific history of serving as our president on different occasions, also accepted the offer to ride on the float. Fran Delaney, another past president, declined the offer so as to watch the parade and take wonderful pictures of the event for us.

I would like to thank everyone for their assistance and help with decorating two boats this year. Again, thank you to Rhonda Marchand for organizing our efforts and a huge thank you to those faithful, talented people who make membership services look good to the world. I do appreciate you all.

laurel