Community Effort Revives July 4th Parade

After several years without a Fourth of July parade, Dave Schill made a command decision.

“We’re going to have a parade this year,” Schill had vowed, “even if I have to pay for it myself.”

Turns out, that won’t be necessary. With just a week until the parade, Moorestonians and sponsors more than stepped up this year, contributing nearly double the bare minimum needed to bring back Moorestown’s traditional Fourth of July celebration.

“At minimum we needed $4,010—that includes $10 for the permit, which the town didn’t waive,” Schill said wryly. “We have over $7,000 in contributions.”

The influx of donations means several things. First, the celebration—sponsored by the Moorestown Business Association—can be larger than planned, with a Mummers string band and a Civil War band performing. Second, the organizing committee can stash away some of the funds for seed money for next year’s parade. 

But, most important to Schill is that there is a parade at all.

“I served for 40 years in the Navy, and I witnessed a lot of people dying for our freedoms and for our country,” Schill said, his voice breaking slightly. “Shame on us for not celebrating the Fourth of July.”

When marchers, bands and bike riders step off at noon next Monday, it will represent more than three years of work by Schill and a dedicated group of residents to bring back the parade, which Town Council cut from the budget.

Schill tried to reinstate the celebration in past years, but got nowhere. 

“All around town, people said they didn’t understand why we had to keep canceling,” Schill recalled. “It’s all about money. We didn’t have money.”

So this year, the parade committee took a new approach. It established sponsorships inspired by the parade’s 1776 theme, and asked for donations of $17.76, $177.60 or $1,776. Most people donated at the $17.76 level, Schill noted, although one anonymous donor sprang for the $1,776.

“One lady came up to us and said she really wanted to support the parade, but all she could afford was $5. And that’s what she gave us, all she had,” Schill said. “Then there are others who ask why I would ever do this. I don’t really have an answer—a civic answer, that is—to that question.”

With hundreds of donations coming in online and at community events, such as Moorestown Day, the parade committee also secured sponsorships from groups such as Virtua Hospital.

In celebration of the townwide effort to revive the parade, the festivities will have a community feel. For the first time, no politicians have been invited to participate. There also won’t be a marshal.

Instead, organizers invited all past Moorestown Citizens of the Year to ride in the parade. Three carloads and counting have agreed to participate, Schill said. Schill himself is the , an honor he said inspired his determination to resuscitate the parade.

“It struck me that this is the kind of thing a citizen should do,” he noted.

Moorestown’s Fourth of July celebration kicks off July 2 with a storefront decoration contest along the parade route.

The parade itself steps off at noon on July 4 with the bands, veterans, Moorestown fire engines, horses, bikers and much more. The route starts at Chester and Central, continues down Main Street and ends at Main and Church.

Participants should gather at 11 a.m. at the starting point. People who wish to march or kids who wish to bike (parents should plan to accompany them) can simply show up day of and will be placed in the route.

The parade committee is still accepting donations, which can be put toward next year’s celebration—Schill already has an even bigger parade and all-day community picnic in mind. Get more information or donate online at moorestownbusiness.com, or visit the Moorestown July 4th Parade Facebook page.