WASHINGTON — The town will commemorate 200 years in grand fashion with a bicentennial celebration Saturday.

U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-1st District, state Sen. David Trahan, R-Waldoboro, and state Rep. Deborah Sanderson, R-Chelsea, will be on hand, as will Washington’s postmaster, who will offer commemorative postcards as well as a one-of-a-kind stamp cancellation.

The town also will offer an art exhibit with artwork from local artists, and Gibbs Library will sell local cookbooks and a special book on the town’s history, “Washington, Maine: People and Places.”

The event will feature multiple demonstrations, including stonecutting, blacksmithing, rug-hooking and re-enactors from the Civil War era.

A 5-kilometer foot race and fun run starts at 8 a.m., followed by an opening celebration and parade at 10 a.m.

Registration for the foot race will start at 7 a.m.

Route 220 will be closed in Washington from 10 to 11 a.m. to accommodate the parade, which will include the town’s Fire Department, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Midcoast Community Band, multiple antique vehicles, oxen, floats and 70 kazoo players from the Advent Christian Camp. The event is to culminate with a release of ivory doves.

After the parade, festivities will move to Medomak Camp, where the opening celebration will commence with Master of Ceremonies John Christie and seventh-grader Cassandra Ray’s award-winning speech, titled “The American Flag.”

Children from Med-O-Lark Camp will lead the crowd in singing the national anthem at noon.

Also beginning at noon, vendors selling food at Medomak Camp ranging from hot dogs and hamburgers to doughboys, to falafel and gyros, with members of the Mount Olivet Masonic Lodge cooking beef and chicken kabobs.

John Burbank is a Kennebec Journal correspondent who lives in Jefferson.

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