The show went on Sunday in Wellesley despite clouds and some drizzle. The Wellesley Celebrations Committee outdid itself with the 56th Annual Wellesley Veterans Parade Sunday, followed by the picnic/concerts/fair at Hunnewell Field and the fireworks.

The parade’s theme was “200th Anniversary of Modern Battlefield Medicine Advancements.”

The winning floats in the parade were:

• Best School Float Trophy–Fiske School
• Judge’s Award–Wellesley Village Church
• Best Theme Related float–St. John’s School
• Best Organizational Float–Wellesley Theatre Project
• Chairman’s Award–Wellesley Robotics
• Most Patriotic Float–Boy Scout Troop #185

Wellesley Media caught the parade action on video so that you can relive it, or watch it for the first time if you missed the big Wellesley’s Wonderful Weekend event.

More: 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 [Read more…]

The 56th Annual Wellesley Veterans Parade, an annual highlight of Wellesley’s Wonderful Weekend, starts at 1pm Sunday near the intersection of Rtes. 16 and 9 and heads into Wellesley Square, wrapping up by 3pm.

This year’s line of march features familiar and new participants, including a flyover by a 1944 L5 Sentinel WWII Air ambulance from the American Heritage Museum in Hudson (sponsored by the Community Fund for Wellesley). The parade’s theme: 200th Anniversary of Modern Battlefield Medicine Advancements.

The line-up:

• Wellesley Police Cruiser – Start of Parade
• 1945 Dodge Oil Truck
• Master of Ceremonies – Tory DeFazio
• Wellesley Friendly Aid Association
• Natick Legion Band (Sponsored by: Haynes Management)
• Color Guard – Navy
• Color Guard – Marines
• Color Guard – Air Force
• DAV – Disabled American Veterans Color Guard
• Col Henry Knox Regimental Color Guard (Sponsored by: Community Fund for Wellesley)
• American Heritage Museum Halftrack
• Sponsored by: Wellesley Country Club
• Chief of Staff – John McReynolds, PO2, USN (Retired)
• Bus for Veterans – Old Town Trolley Tours of Boston (Sponsored by Wellesley Hills Junior Women’s Club)
• American Red Cross
• World War I Ambulance
• World War II Ambulance
• Coastal Ambulance
• Boston Police Gaelic Column Bag Pipe Band (Sponsored by: Roche Bros.)
• Police Color Guard
• Police Chief – Jack Pilecki – Grand Marshal
• Wellesley Animal Control
• Norfolk County Sheriff’s Department
• Minuteman Model A Club of Sudbury (Sponsored by: Colonial Automotive Group)
• Bay State Antique Auto Club (Sponsored by: Dunkin’)
• Boston Firemen’s Band (Sponsored by: Cottage Restaurant)
• Car – Cottage Restaurant
• Troop 185 Wellesley – Carrying Flag
• Cub Scout Pack 185
• Cub Scout Pack 140
• Wellesley Cheer Teams
• Saint John School
• Fire Department – Color Guard
• Wellesley Fire  Trucks
• Honoree – Special Recognition Award – Upham School
• Honoree – Special Recognition Award – Hardy School – 100th Anniversary
• Gangi Bay State Strutters (Sponsored by: Applied Behavioral Learning Services)
• Wellesley High School Band (Sponsored by: Residents of Wellesley)
• Wellesley Select Board
• Honoree – Community Service Award – Sheryl Strother
• Honoree – Distinguished Service Award – Ann Mara Lanza
• Council on Aging – Bus
• Wellesley Library Units
• Applied Behavioral Learning Services (ABLS)
• 26th Yankee Division Historical Reenactment Group (Sponsored by: Community Fund for Wellesley)
• North End Marching Band (Sponsored by: Needham Bank)
• DPW – Thank you Veterans Truck
• DPW Trucks
• Honoree – Deluxe Pizza
• BIG NAZO (Sponsored by: Newton-Wellesley Hospital)
• Honoree – Special Recognition – Mary Bowers
• Honoree – Community Service Award – Catherine Mirick
• Waltham American Legion Band (Sponsored by: Wellesley/Weston Magazine)
• Wellesley School Committee
• Aleppo Shriners – Clowns (Sponsored by: Babson College)
• Schofield Elementary School
• Roma Band Musicians (Sponsored by: Crosspoint Engineering)
• Bates Elementary School
• Fiske Elementary School (with Peter Pineo Tractor)
• Peter Pineo – Transportation
• Hardy Elementary School
• Hunnewell Elementary School
• The Reminisants (Sponsored by: Wellesley Mazda)
• Sprague Elementary School
• Wellesley Scholarship Foundation
• Wellesley Education Foundation
• Wellesley Mother’s Forum
• Yee’s Southern Lions (Sponsored by: Truly’s)
• Wellesley Chinese Language School
• Wellesley Chinese American Network
• Wellesley Hills Junior Women’s Club
• The New Liberty Jazz Band
• Rotary Club of Wellesley
• Honoree – Special Recognition Award – Cynthia Scott – Food Pantry
• WW2 Willy Jeep 5-ton Army Truck – Driver – Adam Bagdis
  Jarvis Appliance
• Wellesley Democratic Town Committee
• State Senator Cindy Creem
• Italian American Band (Sponsored by: Wellesley Hills Junior Women’s Club)
• Unitarian Universalist Society of Wellesley Hills
• Big Smile Entertainment/Peter Panic Unicyclist (Sponsored by: Kiwanis Club of Wellesley)
• Team Ultraviolet & the Ligerbots
• Cycling Murrays (Sponsored by: Sun Life)
• Natural Resources Commission
• Wellesley Conservation Land Trust
• Sustainable Wellesley
• Brookline Bank Vehicle
• Wellesley Lions Club – Lions Club Eyemobile (Sponsored by: Brookline Bank)
• Wellesley Society of Artists
• Honoree – Faber Rug
• Mainely Drafts Horse and Carriage
• Honoree – Village Church
• Sweeper
• Loaded Dice Band (Sponsored by: Middlesex Bank)
• Honoree – Special Recognition Award – Henry Platt
• Forte Parts Connection – Antique Car
• Postcomers of Wellesley
• Wellesley Historical Commission
• Parade Banner Walkers (Sponsor: Wellesley Historical Society)
• Wellesley Historical Society
• Tony Barrie Band (Sponsored by: Wellesley Historical Society)
• Le Regiment Bourbonnais (Sponsored by: Mass Bay Community College)
• Royal Irish Artillery (Sponsored by: Boston Veterinary Clinic)
• TANK and other military equipment – Tim Morine (Sponsored by: Haynes Management)
• Hubbardston Militia 1774 Herbal Medical (Sponsored by: Wellesley College)
• Jeeps and Troop 5-ton Troop Hauler – 2024-Bmy m925a2 (Sponsored by: Community Fund for Wellesley)
• Aleppo – Drifters (Sponsored by: Wellesley Toyota)
• Windjammers (Sponsored by: David Donohue Family)
• Mack Truck – Teamsters Local 25
• Wellesley Theatre Project
• Wellesley Celebrations Committee
• Wellesley Police Cruiser – End of Parade

Complete list of honorees.

The Wellesley Celebrations Committee has organized a Wellesley’s Wonderful Weekend lineup for May 18-19 that features all the traditional favorite activities, plus new attractions and surprises.

The theme of the 56th Annual Veterans Parade and Wellesley’s Wonderful Weekend is  “honoring the 200th Anniversary of Modern Battlefield Medicine Advancements.” Many medical milestones pioneered on the battlefield over the past 200 years have been adopted throughout medicine to greatly benefit our world, according to the organizers.

Featured at the parade will be an L-5 Sentinel, a restored WWII Okinawa medical evacuation aircraft that will fly above the parade route. Also traveling under its own power down the parade route will be a World War II tank.

Leading up to the weekend, see historical displays at the Wellesley Free Library highlighting battlefield medicine and attend a presentation, “From Battlefield to Operating Room,” on Wednesday, May 15 featuring  keynote speakers Retired Brigadier General Dr. Andrea Gayle Bennett,  Deputy Secretary, Executive Office of Veterans Services, and Retired U.S. Army Major Dr. Brian O’Connor, MASH physician, Operation Desert Storm.

The weekend schedule includes open houses at the Fire Department and Police Station as well as other locations; “Touch a Truck” hands-on display at the Department of Public Works; Living History Presentations at Morton Field; the Pancake Festival; Art Displays; Nature Walks; an Antique Car Show; the Town Picnic and Concert; and of course, Sunday night  Fireworks.

Thanks to all who shared photos with us from Sunday’s 55th Annual Wellesley Veterans Parade, one of the highlights of Wellesley’s Wonderful Weekend.

And thank you to the Wellesley Celebrations Committee for pulling the weekend of activities together with its many partners.

Wellesley Public Media has shared video recaps of the parade as well as the picnic and fireworks that took place on Sunday.

[Read more…]

Wellesley’s Wonderful Weekend withstood a mostly rainy Saturday to supply lots of fun for those who got out early, including to a guided trail walk at Morses Pond, and later, to open houses across town departments.

Please send tips, photos, ideas to theswellesleyreport@gmail.com

The 55th Annual Wellesley Veterans Parade is scheduled for Sunday, May 21 from 1-3pm and you’ll have a chance to salute more than a dozen honorees, including Grand Marshal Rick DeLorie, the town’s recently retired fire chief and Rear Admiral John W. Mauger.

The parade celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, and follows a route along Washington St. (Route 16) through to Central Street in Wellesley Square.

See the parade line of march embedded below.

Complete Wellesley’s Wonderful Weekend schedule.

2023 Honorees

Grand Marshal – Richard DeLorie

Chief of Staff – Rear Admiral John W. Mauger

Distinguished Service Award – Shepard N. Cohen

Community Service Award – David Grissino

Community Service Award – Melissa Martin

Community Service Award – Richard Seegel

Community Service Award – Roche Bros. Supermarkets

Dedicated Service Award – Adeline Doherty

Dedicated Service Award – Robert Furdon

Dedicated Service Award – Jeffrey Peterson

Dedicated Service Award – William Shaughnessy

Special Recognition Award – Clever Hand Gallery – 50th anniversary

Special Recognition Award – O’Neil Jewelers – 100th anniversary

Special Recognition Award – Wellesley Toy Shop – 30th anniversary

Special Recognition Award. -Wellesley Society of Artists – 90th anniversary

Wellesley’s Oldest Veterans. -Captain Keith Marden

Download (XLSX, 9KB)

More Wellesley’s Wonderful Weekend updates