Norwood Day coming up fast

Regular attendees of Norwood Day may have noticed that this year’s iteration of Norwood Day will be a bit earlier than others.

That’s mostly due to the calendar, according to Norwood Recreation Department Director Sam White.

“It was bumped up a week, and the reasoning behind that is Labor Day is so late this year, and then there is the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, that follows that weekend, and the weekends after that. A lot of our big vendors weren’t able to make those dates,” White said. “So it was either August 29 or sometime in October. So we picked Aug. 29, which is only a week prior to what it was in the past, that first week of September.”

White said despite the early start, nearly everything that can be set up and ready to go, is set up, and ready to go.

“We’re almost there,” he said. “We have an extensive vendor list and our numbers are up as much as they were last year. We’re going to have over 300 vendors, and of course, we’re bringing back the kiddie rides, the beer garden, the food area, the rock wall, the stage, and this year we’re also bringing trolleys in to give tours around Norwood.”

White said the tours are a throwback to days of Norwood Day past.

“So a couple of years ago, they used to do trolleys to bring people around Norwood, just to kind of show off what we have,” he said.

White said there will be two departing locations, the first of which is at the Talbot Parking Lot –- next to Furlong’s – which will go down Nahatan Street, through Pendergast Circle, stopping at the Norwood Airport, come back out and go down to Dean Street to South Norwood, go past Hawes Pool, the new Coakley Middle School, come back up to Route 1A, up to St. Tim’s and Willett Pond, stop at Norwood High School and then back to the Talbot Lot.

“And then we’re going to have one stationed at the Norwood Senior Center for seniors to hop on and enjoy the trolley as well on the same route,” he said.

White said the tours will be narrated and residents will be able to hear the history of the many sights of the Town. The trolleys themselves are those kinds of hop-on, hop-off tour trolleys you see in Downtown Boston all the time that are made to resemble old-style cable cars.

White said they are looking at the applications now for the Anne T. Lydon Award and will likely have landed on a recipient this week. He said, however, that the winner will be announced on Norwood Day itself.

The award is designed to promote the kind of dedication to the community that Lydon herself professed, who consistently gave back to Norwood and was a positive influence on the Town.

“She was a big part of Norwood, just through her community service, volunteerism and commitment to making Norwood a better place,” he said. “Of course we do have a room dedicated to her in the Civic Center as well to keep her name going. This award just touches on all of that, and we want it to be given to someone who really loves Norwood, loves to give back to Norwood, and is basically a person who you can pick up the phone, call and know they’re going to be there. It’s just great we can keep that tradition alive during Norwood Day.”

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Performers for this year include School of Rock Norwood, Band Gig School of Music, Norwood Recreation School of Dance, the U.S. Taekwondo Center, Field Martial Arts Academy, and the Norwood Drama Club.

“They’re going to be doing a sneak peak of their performance of ‘Legally Blonde,” White said.

This is White’s third time organizing Norwood Day, and though the date kind of threw everything off, he said he thinks he has a feel for the process now.

“It’s just great, always fun and you’ve just got to put one step forward every single day,” he said. “We start this process early in the year, going back to January or February just getting a lot of the big vendors in, making sure everything works for them, and then the booth applications open up and then we get to the point where placements happen and doing the final communication work to make sure no one is confused the day-of. All-in-all, for the planning process we have a great community here in the General Manager’s Office, the Norwood Police Department, the Department of Public Works and the Light Department to put all this together.”

Norwood Day Buttons are currently available at Town Hall and various other Town locations. White said they could always use more volunteers and those interested should reach out to the department at Town Hall.

Sponsors for this year include Gillooly’s Funeral Home, Rockland Trust, the Bank of Canton, the Skating Club of Boston, Chestnut Hill Realty, Rojo’s, DCD Automotive Holdings, Dedham Savings Bank, Central Jeep, One Local Bank, Wegman’s, and Beth Israel Deaconess Needham.