PnPP Best Bonnet 7-4-16

Darien’s Cutest, Dolled up & Dandified, Get Pulled, Pushed or Self-Propelled in July 4 Parade

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Parent power and kid power propelled hundreds of marchers through downtown streets Monday for the annual July 4 Darien-Norwalk Push-n-Pull Parade, exhibiting Darien’s and Norwalk’s cutest patriots in the national colors. The rules of the annual parade are simple: You can walk or ride in any kind of non-motorized, wheeled vehicle. At least one kid was on roller blades, many toddlers were in wagons, often resplendently furnished Radio Flyers, scooters were popular and there were bicycles. All got behind an honor guard from the Darien VFW Post, which led the parade, followed by The Spirit of Black Rock Fife and Drum Corps of Bridgeport, local officials (more on who, below), town resident Joe Warren, dressed as Uncle Sam, and the winners of several contests for their parade gear (more on that, below). Before the event, the paraders gathered in the parking lot at Goodwives Shopping Plaza, where they heard music from “Mary Ann Hall’s Music for Children and Beyond” — a children’s music school with classes at the Darien-Norwalk YWCA from fall through spring.

Parade Push-n-Pull Darien CT 2015

Here’s How Darien Rolls on the Fourth of July

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Hundreds of kids with their parents, friends and relatives pedaled, pulled, pushed, perambulated or otherwise pressed forward at Darien’s 11th annual Push-n-Pull Parade on Saturday morning, taking some small steps in patriotism. Perhaps 400 kids and adults were decked out in all sorts of red, white and blue clothes, hats and decorations. Their vehicles — bicycles, scooters and wagons (the rules are that nothing is motorized except the fire trucks) — sported bunting and ribbons, flags and any other frill that could be found to celebrate the day. Darien’s Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6933, which this year took over the organizing of the event after its 2005 founder, the YWCA of Darien/Norwalk bowed out, marched at the head of the parade. Fire trucks rolled before and after the hundreds of marchers.