SAVANNAH – With 200 years of history and community to celebrate, the village of Savannah was not about to let a few showers rain on its parade.
Cloggers danced in the rain Friday evening, and storms that had been in the forecast for Saturday held off long enough hundreds of people to take part in bicentennial festivities, enjoying a pancake breakfast, a 5K race, a parade, a craft show, kids’ games, historical displays and more.
“Looking at the forecast, you would’ve thought it was going to be a disaster weekend– everybody did,” Mayor Tom Kruse said. “But it’s turned out to be just fine. The turnout is amazing, and there were more entries in the parade than I could have imagined.”
Kruse credited bicentennial chairperson Melanice Fitch as well as her family and the other members of the bicentennial committee for pulling off an exceptional weekend.
The mayor noted the parade was one of the longest the village has ever had, and he joked that truckers were cursing the village from as far as Greenwich because the parade backed up traffic on U.S. 250.
Larry Biddinger served as parade marshal, and other parade units included past “queens” of Savannah festivals, graduating classes from the old Savannah High School, the Crestview High School marching band and an assortment of classic cars, fire trucks and farm equipment. Several local businesses and organizations created floats, and there was even a Johnny Appleseed impersonator.
Members of last class to graduate from Savannah High School, the class of 1962, rode in the parade and set up a display at the craft show in Savannah Town Hall.
Bob Johnson, a member of the class, sold small wooden sailors commemorating the school’s mascot.
“We’ve just been having a ball planning for this,” he said, adding that the remaining members of his class who still live in the area meet monthly and feel like family.
The bicentennial was just as fun for kids, who found no shortage of things to do.
Addyson, Kinsley and Paxton Kline enjoyed riding on their grandfather’s parade float, making sailors’ hats in the town hall, getting their faces painted by Mapleton High School students in Savannah Academy Park and playing carnival games outside the old Savannah School.
Fitch said the weekend’s events drew people from the surrounding community outside the village as well as former residents who returned to reminisce.
Renee Machin summed up how many of the attendees feel about Savannah.
“We love the area. It’s that village, small town feel for sure,” she said. It’s kind of family-oriented.”
Machin said in the 15 years she has lived just a few miles outside the village, she doesn’t remember another event so large for Savannah.
“I’m happy that it didn’t rain like they thought it was going to, and there’s lots to here do for being a small town,” she said. “I think it came together very well.”
The bicentennial celebration continues Sunday with a 10 a.m. community church service featuring circuit riding preacher Nate Wells on horseback and a community choir, followed by a closing ceremony and a potluck at the town hall.
