Chocolate and vanilla cupcakes made up the cakes celebrating the town of Monroe’s 200th birthday during a Bicentennial Picnic that featured the first ever Monroe Music Festival, as hundreds brought blankets and lawn chairs to Wolf Park Saturday afternoon.
Children played games of cornhole, slid down an inflatable slide and moved through an obstacle course. The Monroe Republican Town Committee had a temporary tattoo table and the Monroe Democratic Town Committee had a face painting station.
T-shirts, baseball caps and other merchandise celebrated Monroe’s Bicentennial and, at another booth, the Monroe Volunteer Fire Department had commemorative coins among the items celebrating its 100-year-anniversary.
Scoobie Doo greeted children and posed for pictures, Monroe Rotary Club members served pizza slices, and the event had food trucks. There was even a sighting of the town’s namesake, President James Monroe, with his wife, First Lady Elizabeth Kortright Monroe.
The winners of the Monroe DTC’s Bicentennial Essay Contest for local high school students were announced. Varshil Patel won first place for his essay “The Evolution of Patriotism: From the Founding Fathers to the Present Day”, taking the $500 prize.
Norah Jensen won second place for her essay, “Patriots in the Shadows”, earning a $200 prize.
A video highlighting some of the music from Saturday and a photo gallery are below.
Lots of fun! Can you still get Bicentennial shirts or hats? Where??