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The Children and the Arts 2025 parade arrives on Grove Street. -
The parade concluded with surprise “Big Puppets” depicting the founders of Children and the Arts, Jeannie Connolly and Terry Reeves. -
Lionheart Classical Academy created the lion from “Aesop’s Fables.” -
Vinny the Bubble Guy with young admirers outside of Bass Hall. -
Festival-goers admiring the “tape art” installation on the side of Roy’s Market. -
From left, Dahlia Kangas, Adeline Kangas, Nouvelle Hagman, Francine Hagman, Georgina Hagman and Olivia Kangas with their balloon animals. -
Ra Eldredge, right, longtime art teacher at The Well School, looks on as some of her creations pass by in the parade. -
People line up to watch the parade in front of the Monadnock Center for History and Culture. -
Percussionists from the ConVal High School Marching Band. -
The theme for Lionheart Classical Academy was “Tell Me a Story.” -
Members of Wilton’s Flying Gravity Circus on their unicycles. -
High Mowing School brought a dragon. -
The Monadnock Community Early Learning Center was dragon-themed for the 30th anniversary of Children and the Arts. -
The group from Francestown Elementary School passing the Peterborough Town House. -
A “big puppet” of a National Park ranger created by the Children and the Arts Committee. -
Students from The Well School carrying a banner thanking Children and the Arts for 30 years of collaboration. -
Roz Hanchett, founder and director of Robin’s Nest Preschool, with some young studemts. -
From left, Carol Crocker (rear), Aurora Crocker and Carol Lampert at the Union Congregational Church cupcake stall. -
Preschoolers from The Well School walk in the parade for the first time. -
Families taking in a display at The Caterpillar Lab booth. -
Sam Jaffe, director of The Caterpillar Lab (center front) shares a presentation. -
Students from The Well School parade their “Birds of a Feather” puppets. -
The crowd heads for Putnam Park after the parade. -
A young fan waves at the Monadnock Center for Early Learning “dragons.” -
The Well School dragon makes an apperance. -
Chelsea and Bryan Artim and their children wait for the parade. -
The celebration fills Grove Street. -
Visitors waiting to spin the The River Center prize wheel. -
The view from Putnam Park. -
Hancock Elementary School was nature-themed this year. -
The loading dock at Roy’s is temporarily beautified by “tape art.” -
Participants in “tape art” admire their work. -
A huge group from Peterborough Elementary School makes its way down Grove Street. -
Forrest Shamazu from The Caterpillar Lab. -
Sarah Daume, center, longtime preschool teacher at The Well School, with some of her students. -
Dublin Consolidated School students had puppets and costumes depicting the film “The Water Horse.” -
Mountain Shadows School community members.
The 30th Children and the Arts Festival took over downtown Peterborough on Saturday with a parade of children, big puppets, song, dance, theater and art.
The annual parade down Main and Grove streets includes every elementary school in the ConVal district, including independent schools, preschools and the Lionheart Classical Academy charter school.
This year’s parade culminated with surprise “Big Puppets” depicting two of the founders of the Children and the Arts Festival, Terry Reeves and Jeannie Connolly.
“I was definitely shocked when I saw the puppets. Rachelle (Beaudoin) made it and kept it a secret. I was sitting right next to her when she was making it and I didn’t even know,” Reeves said on Monday. “She even asked me, ‘How do you make a puppet look like a certain person?’ and I said, ‘Oh, just do your best.’”
Reeves said she was trying to position the puppets in the procession leaving Peterborough Elementary School when someone asked her, “Terry, did you even look at the puppet?”
“I was shocked seeing Jeannie and Terry on the puppet’s name tags! It was a lovely surprise until the very end of the parade,” Reeves said.
Reeves said that while she and Connolly were involved from the beginning, the “actual founders” were PES moms Laura Hanson and Nancy Brown.
“They had the seed of the idea for bringing more arts to children in Peterborough. They got an arts grant, and then the figured out what to do with it, and then we all helped,” Reeves said.
Reeves said watching the 30th anniversary of the event she helped create was an amazing experience
“It was just an extraordinary day. Tina Kriebel and her whole committee did a fabulous job. They just went over the top with all these incredible new ideas. I was very proud of the work they have done, and it is very nice to see that the baton has passed to this incredible new group and that the event will keep going.”
The 2025 Children and the Arts Committee was Kriebel (chair), Beaudoin, Serena Berube, Morgan Carpenter, Jen Christensen, Beth Crooker, Dana Dash, Jennie Dilley, Aimee LaRue, Lauren Mann, Heather McClusky, Natasha Meehan, Karrie Mitschmyer, Mackenzie Nichols, Ava O’Neill, Monica Riffle, Amy Theriault and Denise Zimmer.
For information, go to childrenandthearts.org.