By Gail Vanderpoel
Citizens for Conservation had 28 participants in the Barrington 4th of July Parade this year. They included two young children, 7 high school students, and many CFC members. We began preparations with the help of 2 artistic high school students and the creative design of President Tom Crosh. We constructed a 10′-6″ long green snake with paper mache over plastic duct tubing. Many new signs were also created to list CFC’s contributions to making Barrington a great place to live. They reviewed land acquisitions including Grassy Lakes, Cuba Marsh, Grigsby Prairie, and many more to total 5000 acres saved with CFC’s help.
This year brought more participants than we’ve ever had, and showed the enthusiasm of our volunteers to represent our organization and celebrate our accomplishments. Our green snake riding on a wagon surrounded by sedges delighted the children viewing the parade. As always adult parade viewers cheered for us as we marched by in our new t-shirts with the message, “CFC 45 Years Strong – Restore, Educate, Protect, Barrington Area.“ The parade theme was “Best of Barrington – A Community Celebration,” and CFC enthusiastically represented our 45 years of saving living space for living things to make Barrington a great place to live.
