River of Light expands and gets a 2020 remake
November 7, 2020 | By Sunny Nagpaul
On Dec. 5 a River of Light will once again illuminate Waterbury village but not as a parade. Instead it has been “reimagined” and will expand as a series of displays across several communities as it adapts to accommodate public health concerns around COVID-19.
“It was pretty clear early on that we were not going to be able to have a parade,” said Thatcher Brook Primary School art teacher MK Monley, the lead coordinator of the 11th annual event. “But people look forward to it. The main discussion with my current planning group was how can we keep this event a tradition?”
This year students and community members, rather than parading in a procession through downtown Waterbury, will hang lanterns in a drive- or walk-through styled display. And instead of just focusing on Waterbury, there will be four displays in four different communities: Dac Rowe Field in Waterbury, Crossett Brook Middle School in Duxbury, Camp Meade in Middlesex and Waitsfield Elementary School.
On the morning of Dec. 5, volunteers will be situated at each of the locations from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. to help participants hang lanterns. The time window was decided with social distancing in mind.
“I’m figuring with this foresight and having all day to hang lanterns, we won’t have a large crowd at any one time,” Monley said.
The event is just one weekend. People will be asked to retrieve their lanterns by 3 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 6.
The variety of display sites makes this year’s event more inclusive and better accommodates for the participation of Middlesex Rumney Memorial School art teacher Jennifer Campbell and her students, who have been involved with the parade since its beginning in 2009.
“I went to the event the first year, and I got involved the second year they put it on,” Campbell said. “In past years, some of my students have been involved in the Waterbury parade and they will be participating this year as well.”
“It’s expanded considerably from our little school. There are now opportunities for all of the students in the district,” Monley said, referring to the Harwood Union School District that encompasses Waterbury, Duxbury, Moretown, Fayston, Waitsfield and Warren. Although Middlesex is next-door, it’s in a different school district.
Given the pandemic and everyone’s new practice of not mingling with too many people outside of their household, the drive- or walk-through format is meant to encourage families to maintain distance and remain within their pods as they visit the displays.
“We had to speak with the recreation director in regard to setting up a lantern display in the park in town, and if it could be a drive-through,” Monley said. “For this event, the town will plow and open the back entrance to the park, and we’ve also got permission from the towns of Waterbury and Duxbury to put lights on the Winooski Street Bridge for that night.”
The parade began in 2010 as a project of several area artists including Gowri Savoor, an international artist from the United Kingdom who took inspiration from Diwali, the Indian festival of lights that is widely celebrated across that country.
Savoor worked with many school art programs including Thatcher Brook in Waterbury and Rumney in Middlesex where she did a residency teaching students rangoli, a traditional Indian art form that uses brightly colored rice.
The lantern parade initially began as a small procession of Thatcher Brook Primary School students and grew into a community-wide event involving local primary and middle school students, adult community members, bands, and hundreds of spectators who line Stowe and Main Streets to take in the colorful lighted parade on a typically cold and dark early-December evening.
“Just the community being together to celebrate light and fun, it’s such a nice way to connect with people through art,” Monley said. “From the beginning it was a huge success. My students look forward to making lanterns every year.”
Savoor worked closely with Monley on coordinating the parade for its first seven years and has since moved from Vermont. Local artists Mame McKee and Sarah-Lee Terrat who have been involved each year are now core coordinators alongside Monley.
2020 ROL theme: ‘Brave Little State’
Each year River of Light has had a unique theme that inspires lantern-makers of all ages. This year is no different and organizers have come up with a theme they hope fits 2020: Brave Little State.
“Based on the Calvin Coolidge quote, we thought it would be an appropriate theme during a pandemic,” Monley said.
The 30th U.S. president used the expression in a September 1928 speech in Bennington as he toured the recovery efforts following extensive flood damage to his home state in the November 1927 flood. The quotation has since become a popular refrain when times are tough in the state:
“If the spirit of liberty should vanish in other parts of the Union, and support of our institutions should languish, it could all be replenished from the generous store held by the people of this brave little state of Vermont.”
Monley said she looks to this ideal to keep spirits high as everyone attempts to retain a sense of community and normalcy during this pandemic and the River of Light event is part of that.
“This is what we have to do – no, this is what Vermonters do,” Monley said. “We are brave people here and we will get through this.”
Lantern kits available Saturday
While school students make lanterns in classes, Monley and the artist coordinators usually hold lantern-making workshops on the weekends leading up to the River of Light parade. This year, there won’t be workshops but Monley, McKee and Terrat have assembled kits for community members to make lanterns at home. Do-it-yourself lantern kits will be available for pick up on Saturday, Nov. 7, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the main entrance foyer at Thatcher Brook Primary School. Monley said that local families with students enrolled in full-time remote learning should pick up their kits on Saturday as well. Kits are free although donations to cover material costs are appreciated.
More information is available online on the River of Light website. There even are video tutorials posted there to help those constructing lanterns at home.
Those looking for a kit after Nov. 7 should email Monley at mmonley@huusd.org.
Sunny Nagpaul is a recent UVM graduate who worked with the UVM Community News Service project. She lives in Burlington.