GILL — For the 23rd year, the Franklin County Boat Club will be celebrating Christmas in July on Saturday, July 25, with a boat parade and fireworks along the Connecticut River.
The boat parade will start at sundown from Barton Cove in Gill and make its way down along the Riverside neighborhood before turning around at the buoys and heading back up the river. Boaters decorate their boats with lights and props, and a DJ will be on one of the boats this year. Leading the parade are Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus.
Fireworks will start after the boat parade has concluded, and event organizer Sharon Constantine has a surprise planned at the end of the fireworks, Franklin County Boat Club Commodore Joshua Girouard teased.
“So at the end of the fireworks, I wouldn’t get up and leave,” Girouard said.
While the boat parade is a private event hosted by the Franklin County Boat Club, the community is welcome to watch the parade and fireworks, with public viewing access at Unity Park in Turners Falls. Those on the water’s edge will also be able to participate in a friendly competition by cheering for the boat they like the most in the parade.
Winners, like Tom Fydenkevez last year, get half off the price of their dock at the boat club, earn themselves a spot on the “Chuckle’s Cup” and secure bragging rights. The “Chuckle’s Cup,” Girouard explained, is like the Franklin County Boat Club’s version of the “Stanley Cup.” It honors former Commodore Chuck Reum, who started this tradition in 2003 and died in 2018.
Girouard has been part of the boat parade since Reum got the tradition off the ground. Each year, he said, the event just keeps getting bigger.
“I see people’s barbecues and parties on Riverside, and then never mind across the river — it seems like every year it gets bigger and louder and louder,” Girouard said. “So I actually enjoy that. I actually enjoy hearing the kids screaming and rooting for whoever’s boat they see that they like the most. That’s one of my favorite things.”
While Girouard has been part of this event for several years now, he said he owes much of its success and organization to Constantine, who keeps the tradition sailing.
“She really is the person that makes sure this thing happens,” he said.
