Kentlands Day Sets Records (Photos & Video)
UPDATED
Kentlands Day is an annual celebration in the downtown Kentlands community in Gaithersburg. MyMCMedia’s Sonya Burke reports this year’s event set some records. Take a look.
The weather was perfect for Kentlands Day on May 4 and organizers described attendance as record-setting. Over 22,000 people attended the event in Gaithersburg.
“This was definitely our most well-attended Kentlands Day and arguably the most successful,” said Andrew Ross, Kentlands Day planning committee member.
According to Ross, over 100 vendors participated and more money was raised than ever before too.
“Criswell upped their donation substantially and made the Car Show free to enter, so we had a huge turnout of great cars and the Car Show was packed all day,” said Ross.
Embrace Home Loans was the presenting sponsor, Ross added.
“It will be the first time the event has paid for itself from sponsorships alone, which helps us with donations for the Kentlands Community Foundation and others,” Ross said.
The event also helped raised money for Lakelands Park Middle School and Rachel Carson Elementary School (RCES).
Ross said Ride Allegheny also raised nearly $1,300 for Operation Second Chance at the event too.
And, there’s more good news to report:
“We got wind that the men and women at Station House 31 were pooling personal funds to buy a TV that county funds did not fully allow for, so the event committee donated the remaining $300 to Fire Station 31 to give them enough money to buy what they wanted for their station house,” Ross said.
The Kentlands Day Parade featured RCES Principal Larry Chep as the grand marshall. Congressman John Delaney marched in the parade, too, while Gaithersburg Mayor Sidney Katz and City Council members rode the city’s trolley.
The event began with the national anthem, performed by Fox5 news anchor Melanie Alnwick, a Gaithersburg resident. Cub Scout Troop 221 provided an honor guard, while “The Band,” a marching band from Baltimore, kicked off the parade with a crowd pleasing performance.
Organizers said other notable stage performances included middle school band, Fuse, and the Quince Orchard Marching Band and Color Guard. Potomac Pizza provided breakfast for all of the volunteers in the morning and reported food sales were much stronger than last year (as did O’Donnells), Ross said.
It wasn’t all perfect though.
Before the event got started, Ross said some tents and tables were vandalized overnight.
“Fortunately, our great vendors stepped up and fixed the problem and only set us back a little bit in the beginning – by the time the businesses started arriving at 7:30am, we were back on track,” he said.
Below are some photos from Kentlands Day, highlighting just a few of the many people and participants at the downtown Kentlands event:
Photos | Phil Fabrizio
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