Dignitaries from other Wiltons will be in attendance

as well.

WILTON – The party in Wilton this weekend will be one for the record books, said the town’s bicentennial celebration organizer, Shannon Smith.

“Wilton will be in the history books after this weekend, rain or shine,” said Smith. For four years he has been planning the blowout bash, which is expected to reel in a crowd of 10,000 into the town of around 4,000. “If Wilton residents aren’t proud to be from this town this weekend, then they never will be.”

Among the expected highlights of the event is a three-hour parade that will step off Saturday at 9 a.m. and feature dozens of floats and plenty of Shiners with spectators lining the parade route.

Smith said she has a few tricks up her sleeve for the festivities. “When that parade steps off, there is going to be a surprise the likes of which this town has never seen before. Everyone in Wilton will know when it’s 9 a.m.,” she said. She would not reveal more.

A one-hour fireworks display over Wilson Lake Saturday night at dusk is also going to be high on the excitement scale for the weekend, said Smith. There will also be a re-enactment of the first town meeting on Aug. 10, the actual date the town was incorporated in 1803. It will be held at 2 p.m. at the Congregational Church.

Smith said she has poured thousands of volunteer hours into the event, and come this weekend, she said she knows it’s all going to be worth the work. In fact, her efforts have been so noticeable that the town dedicated this year’s town report to her, an honor usually bestowed on deceased town greats, she noted proudly.

“It was quite an honor,” she said. “And it was an honor I was just overwhelmed about.”

What’s more of an honor is the handful of dignitaries from around the nation who are expected to come to town and even two who are scheduled to cross the Atlantic Ocean to attend the celebration and be featured on a float during the parade.

On Wednesday and Thursday, those A-list guests will trickle into the area and when they get here, Smith promises they will be “spoiled rotten.” The guests include Alice Ayers, selectwoman from Wilton, Conn., (population 16,000), district town counselor Anthony Brown-Hovelt and his wife, Elena, from Wilton, England, and Thelma and George Nopoulos, from Wilton, Iowa, which was named after Wilton, Maine.

Thelma is working on a book about her hometown in Iowa, the last chapter of which will be named “Coming to Wilton Maine.”

Arriving on Wednesday will be Kyle Toschosks, the mayor of Wilton, N.D. (population 800). He and his wife and children are making a vacation of the trip to Maine and will be traveling with Smith to Augusta on Wednesday to meet with Gov. John Baldacci in his office at 2 p.m.

On Friday from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Town Office, the smattering of dignitaries will be honored with a reception, said Smith, who encourages the public to attend and find out what life is like in other Wiltons. “To have all these dignitaries coming, what an honor,” she said. “It’s going to be fun.”

The price tag for the bash has been set around $40,000; money that Smith says is well-spent. The planning has been “a true community team effort” that has brought Wilton residents from all walks of life together for a common good.

“The rain isn’t going to stop it. The show will go on because there is no turning back,” Smith said, her excitement about the event rising above the stress and energy it has taken to pull it off.

“I want to be able to give this town something it will always remember. It’s going to be quite the party. Happy birthday Wilton. Congratulations on 200 wonderful years.”


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