LEVERETT — A large wooden cake that has served to mark milestone anniversaries for communities across the region, most recently being displayed for Deerfield’s 350th anniversary, will arrive in Leverett later this month.
With the town preparing to embark on celebrating 250 years since its 1774 founding, the 2,000-pound cake, made from PVC plastic-covered wooden panels, will be disassembled from its current site in front of the South Deerfield Fire District on Routes 5 and 10 and brought to Montague Road, likely on the morning of Oct. 29.
Eventually, the cake will be positioned on the Leverett Library side of the ballfield between that building and the Leverett Elementary School, said Maureen Ippolito, a member of the town’s 250th Anniversary Committee.
The cake’s arrival will be among the first visual signs of work that has been ongoing for the past several years to prepare for the anniversary. The next activities related to the 250th anniversary will be volunteers planting bulbs at various sites throughout town this fall.
“Residents will be planting daffodil bulbs and Stella d’Oro daylilies at town intersections, so they will bloom next year,” Ippolito said.
The main event for the semiquincentennial will be July 6 at 10 a.m., when the 250th anniversary parade will step off. Following that will be a two-hour barbecue starting at 12:30 p.m.
Leverett’s 250th anniversary kickoff event is set for March 2 at the elementary school, where a pancake breakfast, sponsored by the Leverett Firefighters’ Association, will be held from 8 to 10:30 a.m.
Three days later, a commemorative postmark will debut, coinciding with the exact March 5, 1774 date of the town’s founding as it separated from Sunderland.
Then, on March 9 from 1 to 4 p.m., at the elementary school, will be the birthday party for the town. During this, festivities will include traditional Native American games, old-timey games, musical and theatrical performances, local-themed refreshments, a birthday cake and gifts for those who attend.
Other activities on the calendar include April 10 at 7 p.m. at the elementary school, when Marge Bruchac talks on the history of Indigenous peoples in town, and May 25 from 1 to 5 p.m., an antique vehicle and equipment show on the ballfield.
Tentatively, the year-long celebration will conclude with a fall harvest dance.
Already, there has been the unveiling of a tile mural “Past is Present is Future” by Judith Inglese, installed on the exterior of the library last year, and the creation of a logo that adorns various anniversary merchandise. The logo has a leafy tree with roots designed by Leverett resident and artist Lori Lynn Hoffer that modernizes a logo designed by Stella Schoenhaut for the bicentennial 50 years ago.
The committee is still soliciting photographs and records from the town’s bicentennial and doing research into the town history.
For more information, go to https://www.leverett.ma.us/g/96/250th-Celebration or the Facebook page at Leverett 250th Anniversary.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
