mom Gina Harris, who is also a positive role model in her career as a Firefighter and EMT for Belmont Fire Depart-ment.

Not only was Ry-an’s generosity recog-nized by her family and friends; it also came to the attention of others in the community.

In honor of the desire to make her special day

SERVING TILTON, NORTHFIELD, BELMONT & SANBORNTON, N.H. FREE

INDEXn

Volume 7 • Number 3224 Pages in 2 Section

©2014, Salmon Press, LLC.Call us at (603) 279-4516

email: steamer@salmonpress.com

Opinion ...........................A4

North Country Notebook A4

Local News ......................A9

Culture .............................A5

Obituaries ........................A5

THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 2015

Belmont looks back to “The Good Old Days” with Old Home Day festivitiesBY DONNA RHODES

drhodes@salmonpress.com

BELMONT — While the 2015 Belmont Old Home Day paid tribute to memories of “The Good Old Days,” the celebration also created future “good old days” memories for the young-er generations who gath-ered in the village at this year’s annual festivities.

The traditional pan-cake breakfast, flag rais-ing ceremonies and the 27th Annual Tioga Fun Run got things under-way early last Saturday morning.

Beginning at 10 a.m., children had a lot of fun playing number of games, including the popular Pedal Tractor Pull, while older resi-dents strolled along the Village Green. There they found numerous booths in an outdoor market-style setting that offered everything from books and artwork to jewelry, candles and novelty items.

There were many

Donna RhoDes

Belmont Village bustled with activity on Old Home Day last Saturday afternoon as people enjoyed live music, games, craft booths, great foods and a parade.

local fundraising activi-ties for people to support as well.

The Belmont Elemen-tary School Tigers sold colorful balloons to help fund their special pro-grams and the Belmont Bogie Busters snowmo-bile club had a dunk booth. Every ball thrown to try and dunk mem-bers of the club helped send children and young adults with disabilities to Easter Seal’s Camp Sno-Mo each summer.

Food was another way folks could support many nonprofit groups.

Friends of Belmont Football dished out a variety of delicious que-sadillas along with some lemonade to wash it all down.

Nearby, the Belmont High School Parent/Teachers Organization brought back their fa-mous Taco Bar, and Bel-mont Boy Scout Troop 65 served up chili and strawberry shortcake.

If that wasn’t enough to whet everyone’s ap-

petites, the men and women of the Belmont Fire Department also cooked up Fried Dough and French Fries and sold the few remaining

tickets to their always popular chicken barbe-cue, which took place at 5 p.m. that night.

Other booths along the Green offered infor-

mation and graciously accepted donations for causes such as local food banks, Ladies Group Missions, environmen-tal initiatives and more.

The American Le-gion’s Charles H. Kil-born Post 58 also sold tee shirts and raffle tickets for two prime-time pass-SEE FESTIVITIES, PAGE A8

Belknap County 4-H Fair offers fun for the whole familyBELMONT — Look-

ing for some wholesome, safe and affordable fam-ily fun? The Belknap County 4H Fair this weekend in Belmont is the biggest little ag-

ricultural fair in New Hampshire! Come enjoy all the traditional fair events but at a location that is easy to find and just the right size.

The Fair begins Sat-

urday morning at 9 a.m., and will run through Sunday at 5 p.m. Kids under ten have free ad-mission, and those over 10 pay admission of $7 for a visit packed with

fun and entertainment. Active military and vet-erans with ID are also free!

The Belknap County 4H Fair has been provid-ing fairgoers with great

animal exhibits like ox pulls, draft horse demon-strations, and 4H youth animal displays. Our historic Colonial Barn

Belmont’s Walter Vorse awarded Boston Post CaneBY DONNA RHODES

drhodes@salmonpress.com

BELMONT — In the midst of Belmont’s Old Home Day festivities last Saturday, another special celebration took place when Selectmen Ruth Mooney and Jon Pike presented the Bos-ton Post Cane award to Walter Vorse, who was recently deemed to be the town’s living oldest resident.

The presentation took place before a large crowd at the bandstand, shortly after the parade.

Vorse was quite pleased to receive the honor and after accept-ing the cane he took a moment to introduce himself to his fellow res-idents.

“If I saw someone get

a longevity award, I’d be curious about what led up to that presenta-tion,” he said.

He went on to explain that he grew up in Mas-sachusetts and joined the Navy during World War II, where he soon found himself com-manding a ship in the Pacific Ocean.

“That was quite a weight, to be com-manding a ship at just 22-years-old,” he said.

Vorse spent 25 of his 30 months in the Navy at sea, and oversaw his ship as it took part in landings in Okinawa and other sites in the Pacific. He also led his crew in mine demoli-tion operations in the Sea of Japan.

“And I came back in

one piece,” Vorse said to a round of applause.

After 30 months in the Navy, he made good use of the GI Bill and headed off to college. Over the years, he re-ceived degrees from Fitchburg State Col-lege, Boston University and Harvard Graduate School as he moved on to a 40-year career in ed-ucation, and eventually settled in Belmont.

Mooney explained that Belmont was one of 431 towns that were given the prized canes in 1909 by Boston Post newspaper owner Ed-ward Grozier.

Each cane was made of mahogany and topped with a gold knob. Grozier’s instructions, which many hailed as

a clever publicity stunt for the now defunct pa-per, were that the canes be handed down over the years to the oldest resident of each town.

Initially intended

for the oldest male in a community, in 1930 the specifications were broadened to include women.

Belmont’s original Boston Post Cane is

now on display at the town hall but recipients are awarded a replica of the cane to commemo-rate their status as the town’s oldest resident.

Donna RhoDes

As part of last weekend’s Old Home Day events, Belmont Selectmen Jon Pike and Ruth Mooney presented Walter Vorse with the Boston Post Cane, officially declaring him the oldest living resident in the community.

Northfield girl celebrates birthday by giving to Humane SocietyBY DONNA RHODES

drhodes@salmonpress.com

NORTHFIELD — July 17 was not only a special day for 10-year-old Rylan Harris, but for the animals housed at the Meredith branch of the New Hampshire Humane Society as well. The birthday girl re-quested that all her gifts be earmarked for pets in central New Hamp-shire who are in need of a home.

“At first, I couldn’t decide what I wanted to do for my birthday, but I have way too many toys already and thought I’d rather help someone else,” said Rylan.

CouRtesy

Ten-year-old Rylan Harris of Northfield dedicated her July birthday party to the animals of the New Hampshire Humane Society, and she, her friends and her own rescue dogs proudly posed for a photo with some of the many donations she collected for the Meredith facility.

Rylan is a student at Southwick School in

Northfield, and said she is a big animal lover.

After mulling over the many organizations

seeking help from the public, it was her own pets that helped her de-cide to benefit the Hu-mane Society this year. She herself has two res-cue dogs, Shia and Zen, and is always has hope that other pets can find a loving home, too.

As invitations for her party went out, so did the word that the gifts people brought should be meant for pets and not for her.

“I was very proud of her. In a time when so much of young people’s lives are driven by mate-rialism, this future lead-er was a positive role model for others,” said

SEE BIRTHDAY, PAGE A10

SEE BELKNAP, PAGE A10

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Belmont Celebrates “The Good Old Days”ALL PHOTOS BY DONNA RHODES

A8 LOCAL NEWS n

August 6, 2015 WINNISQUAM ECHO

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• Friendly neighbors in a warm andwelcoming community

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es to Gunstock Ski Area.Musical entertain-

ment at the Belmont Bandstand was provid-ed by the band King Chrome during the early afternoon hours, followed by the Rockin’ Daddios later in the day.

As 1 p.m. and parade time drew near, though, a familiar figure enter-tained youngsters who gathered along Main Street.

Decked out in his red summer gear, San-ta himself walked along Main Street, greeting children and handing out some of his special-ly made reindeer orna-ments.

“This is a festival. A celebration. There’s a parade coming, and it’s Old Home Day here in Belmont, and that’s what brought me here today,” he said.

As the first parade entries hit the route, though, he headed back to his Concord Opera-tions facility and let oth-ers take center stage.

Emcee Tom Murphy introduced each parade entry as they made their way through the village.

Leading the way were representatives of the Belmont Police Depart-ment who, for the first time ever, were accom-panied by Vito, their new K-9.

Grand Marshal hon-ors for 2015 were split be-tween three hard-work-ing civic organizations. Wallace Rhodes, Linda Frawley and members of the Belmont Heritage Commission were select-ed for their restoration of the historic Belmont Bandstand. Woody and Christine Fogg were also acknowledged for spearheading the con-struction of the new Tioga Pavilion. Last, but not least, Mark Rob-erts and Ken Knowlton also received special ac-claim for their efforts in placing a covered bridge across the Tioga River to create a River Walk that will meander along the waterfront from the village to Route 140 on the Belmont/Northfield town line.

Taking home trophies for their parade entries this year were four of the

many floats and march-ing groups who took part in the festivities.

Carlton MacLeod and his restored 1957 Ford station wagon were giv-en the Selectmen’sTro-phy.

The Girl Scouts Win-nibell Assorted Troops float won the Belmont Old Home Day Heart of the Community Tro-phy, Sterling Blackey of Northfield’s Corliss Farm took home the Albert Akerstrom II Award, and the Knights of Columbus 4th Degree Patriot of Arms, Assem-bly 638 of Franklin and Tilton, were presented with the Charles H. Kil-born American Legion Post 58 trophy.

Both the Belmont High School Marching Band and Moulton’s Band provided music along the parade route and Belmont’s 2015 Good Citizen, Nikolai Fernan-dez was also honored.

Other notable entries were the horses from the Winnisquam Whin-nies 4-H organization and the multi-family “Dancing Never Gets Old” float that included not only “flappers” from the Roarin’ 20’s but oth-er fun dance styles and costumes through the years.

“It’s been a very good day,” said Events Coordinator Gretta Ol-son-Wilder. “We had a wide variety of vendors this year and a really great crowd of people who came out, especially for the parade.”

In the evening hours, the activities then moved to Bryant Field.

It was there that crowds gathered to en-joy a rock wall and ob-stacle course, a perfor-mance by Annie and the Orphans, and finally, a spectacular fireworks presentation by Atlas Fireworks that capped off the day.

Next Saturday, Aug. 8, the 47th Annual Bel-mont 10-Mile Road Race will bring hundreds of runners back to the vil-lage along with other race activities that will comprise the “Road, Re-lay and Fun Competition Day,” including the Cow Pie (10-Mile) Relay Race.

For entry forms and more information on that day’s events, visit www.belmontnh.org.

FESTIVITIESCONTINUED FROM PAGE A1

Taylor Community hosting Photo ID Day with Laconia Museum & Historical Society

LACONIA — The Laconia Historical and Museum Society will share some of the many images from their col-lection which they need help identifying, includ-ing people, places and events.

If you can assist in putting a name to a face or share a story about an event, your input would be extremely helpful. Join the LMHS for a ca-sual day of reminiscing, Thursday, Aug. 20 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Taylor Community’s Woodside Building.

Taylor Community is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit Continuing Care Retire-ment Community offer-ing a full continuum of care, including Indepen-dent Living for active seniors, Assisted Living, Memory Care and Nurs-ing. Our mission is to provide the highest qual-ity retirement living options to support the independence, health and dignity of communi-ty residents. Visit www.taylorcommunity.org, or call 366-1400 for more information.