West Hartford’s Park Road Association is planning to transition to a series of smaller events after staging the final Park Road Parade in October 2024.

By Ronni Newton

For more than two decades, the Park Road Parade has been written in pen on West Hartford’s activity calendar for a Saturday in October, a date when the sidewalks along Park Road are lined with families, children (and some adults) eagerly awaiting candy thrown by marchers and those riding on floats. The parade was rained out the past two years, and after much thought and consideration, it has been decided that this year, on Oct. 5, 2024, beginning at 10:30 a.m., the Park Road Parade will kick off and marchers will complete the one-mile route for the final time.

“After this year, we are going to suspend the parade,” said Chuck Coursey, a long-time volunteer and organizer of the event. Only one Park Road Parade has actually been held in the past four years, with the 2020 event canceled due to COVID-19, and rain causing cancellation in both 2022 and 2023.

Rather than spending the majority of its efforts planning an event that is highly weather-dependent, Park Road Association Co-presidents Tracy Flater and Johnny Paindiris, along with Tony Landino and other parade organizers and association members, have decided to move forward with holding multiple smaller events to engage the community and unite the neighborhood.

Unlike the town’s Memorial Day Parade in May, the Park Road Parade was never intended to mark a serious or solemn occasion, and it has appropriately been all about fun and entertainment. Over the years, along with a few bands and fife and drum corps, the parade has included brightly-decorated floats, a Zamboni, brigades of people pushing lawnmowers or walking their pugs, Shriners driving mini firetrucks, plenty of clowns and dancers, and festively-attired members of the town’s Nepalese and Peruvian communities exhibiting their culture.

The light-hearted parade originated as a celebration to bring Park Road businesses and residents together – the light at the end of the tunnel following completion of a two-year road reconstruction and neighborhood beautification project – and it was quickly embraced as one of West Hartford’s signature events.

Richard Patrissi, then-owner of Patrissi Nursery and Garden Center and known as the unofficial “Mayor of Park Road”; Angelo Faenza, then-owner of the Prospect Café; and Rob Rowlson, then-West Hartford Director of Community Services, spearheaded the idea of holding a parade to celebrate the completion of the infrastructure improvements. The first parade was held in September 1999.

“Over the last 25 years organizing the parade has grown into a nearly year-long volunteer effort, with no guarantee that Mother Nature will cooperate by keeping inclement weather away,” Landino said. “Expenses for the event are incurred each year, even if the parade needs to be canceled due to rain, as was the case in the last two years.”

The cancellations have been tough on participants who lose the momentum for their planning. “There’s been so much skepticism about building floats after back-to-back rainouts,” Flater said. And due to the resources and coordination involved in staging the parade, it’s not feasible to have a rain date.

In 2014, the parade was dedicated to Patrissi, who passed away in March 2013, and following the parade, a memorial clock was unveiled at the crosswalk in front of Playhouse on Park and AC Petersen Farms. Rowlson passed away in 2022, and the intent has been to have a parade honor his legacy – but those plans have been thwarted by the weather.

Fingers are crossed for good weather this year – or at least the absence of a hurricane or thunderstorm – and the plan will be to honor Rowlson. Flater is also hoping that third time’s a charm for Renée DiNino to finally take on the role of grand marshal, which was the plan for 2022 and then 2023. DiNino, a longtime TV and radio personality (she just retired from the latter) is known for her advocacy of animal- and hunger-related organizations. Plans are being finalized for the parade to also highlight those causes and provide donation opportunities, as well as to honor DiNino’s two decades of service.

All prior Park Road Parade grand marshals have been invited to participate in the 2024 parade, Coursey said, and he’s hoping past volunteers will come back for the final event.

Future plans for Park Road events

“We have seen an influx of new businesses move into the Park Road area, people with lots of energy,” said Coursey. Veteran volunteers and organizers Flater, Paindiris, Landino, and West Hartford Public Relations Specialist Renée McCue are eager for others to get involved in promoting the Park Road neighborhood.

“We’re planning several smaller events,” Coursey said, that will shed light on all of the services available along Park Road – where you can eat, shop, get your hair cut, obtain tax advice, get a tattoo, or watch award-winning professional theater, among other activities. Meghan Hayden, owner of River Bend Bookshop, and the owners of the “restaurant row” eateries (Smoke Public House, Plan b, 1001 Mexican Bites, and Portobello) have already gotten actively involved and collaborated on activities, Coursey said, including a poetry walk and a pre-parade happy hour.

“We’re not saying it won’t come back,” Coursey said of the parade, but for now it’s being paused. The celebrity breakfast, where local politicians and other well known personalities served breakfast at Effie’s Place for many years to raise money to support the parade, never returned after COVID and was replaced by other fundraising events. While there are no plans for that event to return, nothing is off the table for good, he said.

“We want to promote the street,” Coursey said. “That allows us to keep growing as an organization. We’re not ruling anything out.”

Since COVID, small business owners have been working harder than ever. Collaboration is important, and there are also plans to rejuvenate the Park Road Association’s Beautification Committee since the organizers of the group moved out of town.

Road construction is on the horizon again, and in 2022 the State Bond Commission approved $1.5 million to fund infrastructure and road safety updates. An audit of Park Road was performed as the Vision Zero Action Plan was under development, and that provides a blueprint for some of the upgrades. The commencement of the improvement project has been slightly delayed due to utility work being performed by Connecticut Natural Gas and the Metropolitan District Commission, but Flater said it will hopefully begin in the fall – and won’t interfere with the parade plans.

“The Park Road Parade would not be possible without the generous support of our sponsors,” said Landino. “For this year’s parade, we will honor all sponsorships provided for our canceled 2023 parade and will also recognize those who have supported us in the past.” New sponsors, and additional contributions, are also being actively solicited at various sponsorship levels. Commitments should be made by Sept. 1 to be included on promotional materials.

“We’ve had a good run,” said Coursey.

“We plan to go out with a bang and have the best parade yet,” Flater said.

The Park Road Parade will be held on Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, beginning at 10:30 a.m. For more information, visit the Parade website, parkroadct.com/about-the-parade.

Interested participants, volunteers, or sponsors can also contact Landino at [email protected] (860-719-9827) or McCue at [email protected] (860-561-7521).

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