There — in the heart of Friday’s 2021 Black Patch Opening Parade — were the first responders of Caldwell County.
Firefighters. Ambulance. Police. Local water and electric utilitymen. Even the dispatchers, who sometimes are forgotten in the grand scheme of emergency preparedness.
All of them were invited by the Princeton Optimist Club to take part in the march from the Old Butler High School and down West Main Street, where throngs and throngs swarmed both sides of the street to give thanks — and clamor for candy.
It’s been a long, laborious 18 months especially for first responders across the country, but Caldwell County especially, as COVID-19 has been one of the many things pulling for attention.
But Black Patch, typically celebrated on the first weekend after Labor Day, fell on an ominous anniversary in United States history, as 20 years ago, time froze around the events of September 11, 2001.
And because of that, it was important to group all of Caldwell County’s response units together in parade — as a type of honor and celebration.
George Kilgore, treasurer of Princeton’s Optimist Club and in his 40th year with the organization, said this weekend just had a different feel.
Kilgore added that bringing on the dispatchers — who nationwide link callers to the help they need — were an important addition to this group.
Caldwell County Chief Deputy Chris Noel, who recently celebrated his 20th year with the sheriff’s office, said he’d been at what was then his new post for three months before that fateful Tuesday in Washington D.C., New York City and Stoneycreek Township, Pennsylvania.
It certainly bears memory, and Friday’s parade only showed the strength of community support in Princeton.
More than 1,000 people were on hand for Friday’s parade in Princeton, in what Kilgore said is easily the community’s largest annual march.
Hear Saturday’s First Responders Service in Full:
