Saturday scene at Wellesley’s Wonderful Weekend 2024

With Wellesley’s Wonderful Weekend, you could really make a day of it on Saturday, and many did.

Some early risers hit the trails at 9am for a guided walk with the Wellesley Trails Committee in the Guernsey Sanctuary and to the Waban Arches.

Other early birds followed the trail at Wellesley High School from the kitchen to the cafeteria, where they munched on pancakes, waffles, and more courtesy of the Kiwanis Club, Key Club, and other volunteers.

When I stopped by the kitchen was doing a brisk business, though the report from the gluten-free station was that things were a little slow there. I did some table hopping and customers seemed satisfied, with many making trips back to the kitchen for seconds and maybe more. Select Board member Beth Sullivan Woods said there was even an inquiry for the waffle recipe.

I got caught up in some good conversation about the Wellesley recycling center, including one classic tale of finding a hard-to-open safe there that the finder never did get open (though he handed it off to a colleague who may or may not have—he promised not to disclose what the contents were to my narrator). Another diner shared his thoughts on the challenges for builders of adhering to the energy codes adopted by the town in recent years. And another breakfast patron gladly posed for a family photo, joking that “My kids always get in Swellesley, but I never do!”

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By the time I left the pancakes and visited the Touch-A-Truck event at the Department of Public Works, the huge crowd I’d heard about from my breakfast sources had thinned out. “I hear there were a thousand people there waiting for them to open at 9,” one event organizer told me at the high school. That inspired me to park across Rte. 9 from the DPW and walk over to avoid any parking lot wackiness. Though when I arrived it was the designated sensory hour, during which lights stopped flashing and visitors were asked not to lay on the horns. So it was all very chill.

DPW Director David Cohen was beaming when he walked over to me, exhilarated from another successful event. The setup was different this time around, with bays open and some vehicles parked inside, just in case it poured.

The DPW used the event as well to collect used suits to be shared with those who need them. We were looking at a full rack of suits, and Cohen said many more had been moved inside the building lobby.

“The team loves this event, it gives them a different way to interact with the public,” Cohen said.

Speaking of suits, many of the kids went away from the DPW display with brightly colored safety vests of their own.

I went from the quietness of the DPW yard to the fire station, where it the action was in the 5-alarm stratosphere. Kids were laying on the horns here. They were also sliding down fire poles and putting out phony fires with a real fire hose. Just to keep things real, the department responded to an actual call during the event.

By now it was lunchtime, which meant paying a visiting to the Police Department. On my way, I hit the elaborate encampment, this year with a theme of battlefield medical advances from the 1800s to World War I and II, complete with a field hospital display. The cannons were fired off for good measure.

Not that the treats didn’t look tasty at the encampment, but I held out for the gourmet hot dogs at the Police Station, where drones flew overhead to keep a watch on my diet.

Hot dogs weren’t the only dogs drawing a crowd at the station either. Winnie the community resource dog was holding court in the lobby, a bomb-sniffing dog had the front lawn packed, and a robotic dog was busting moves behind the station.

Inside the station, a visitor sought out a rare Chief Jack Pilecki trading card, sure to be worth more once he retires at the end of June.

Fortified at the Police Station, I headed to the new Hunnewell Elementary School, where I drooled over the shiny new basketball court. A far cry from the padded dark gym of old, where our kids and others were reminded not to run…

Young and old alumni could be seen roaming the halls, thinking back to the shabby chic classrooms they survived. I chatted up the School Committee’s Catherine Mirick, whose efforts were instrumental in getting the new school built. She was enjoying the steady stream of visitors “oohing” and “ahhing” over the design, colors, and brightness of the building.

I wrapped up my Wonderful Saturday with a stop at Pups in the Park at Hunnewell Field, where dozens of pet owners showed off their dogs, and where the dogs showed off, too. Former Wellesley Animal Control Officer Sue Webb did her best Westminster Dog Show commentating as humans and dogs trotted around an enclosed circle at the event sponsored by the Wellesley Rotary Club, Friends of Wellesley Veterans, and the Wellesley Celebrations Committee. Groups providing adoption services, food for elderly dog owners, and more shared information at the event.

Every dog was a winner, and during one contest for good dog behavior, all the dogs proved to be so disciplined it was tough to declare a victor.