Portsmouth Shows Its Love; Creates Human Heart for 375th Anniversary

An estimated 400-500 people were on hand at Glen Park for a sunny and beautiful spring day on Sunday to celebrate the Portsmouth 375th Committee's Earth Day Kite Festival.

This event began with a performance of the Navy Band Northeast's Top Brass Quintet and ended with Story-teller/singer Lindsay Adler performing as "Mother Nature" for the kids. In between was a Kite flying demonstration by local kite expert Tom Casselman, whose magnificant large kites provided quite a show, enticing children of all ages to try their own kite-flying skills during the afternoon. Portsmouth Girl Scouts had a table that made provided a great service by making kites for the younger kids to use.

Miss Rhode Island Teen USA Elaine Collado made an appearance and graciuously gave interviews and anwered questions about what life is like for a beauty pageant contestant. The Portsmouth Garden Club as on hand for a garden-oriented garage sale, which proved to be very popular, as was the URI soil sampling team, seasonal herbs and plants from Maplewood Farms and plant/flower arrangements from Enchanted Blooms. Del's lemonade and Grillmaster's provided food and drink for the crowd. 

The highlight of the day was the formation of a "I Love Portsmouth" heart at 2 PM, which was photographed from the top of a Portsmouth Fire Department Ladder truck operated by Lt.  Norman Moore and firefighter Timothy Gumkowski. An informal count showsd about 331 people were "part of the heart."

375th Event Chair Roberta Stevens expressed her thanks to the many volunteers whose efforts made this event possible. All in all, a very nice and well organized event. Please check with the 375th Committee's website at www.portsmouthri375.com for the dates and times of future 375th events and join in supporting the celebration of Portsmouth's 375th birthday.

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