{"id":193936,"date":"2025-06-16T20:43:07","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T01:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=193936"},"modified":"2025-06-17T21:13:36","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T02:13:36","slug":"van-werts-independence-day-parade-to-return-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2025\/06\/16\/van-werts-independence-day-parade-to-return-in-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Van Wert’s July 4 parade to return in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While there won\u2019t be an Independence Day parade in Van Wert this year, there is some good news \u2013 there will be a July 4 parade in the city in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As reported on Monday, the Independence Day parade was most recently organized, set up and run by American Legion Post 178, but that won\u2019t be the case this year due a lack of help.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The annual Independence Day parade will return to Van Wert in 2026. VW independent file photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

However, Navy Club Ship 726 Commander Ken Myers said the club plans to bring back the annual parade next year. Navy Club Ship 726 is made up of sailors, Marines and Merchant Marines, and Myers, who previously served as Post 178 commander, said planning for 2026 is already in the early stages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen the Navy Club learned officially that the parade wasn\u2019t going to happen from the Legion, Navy Club members reached out to myself and said \u2018hey, what can we do to revive this,\u2019\u201d Myers said. \u201cI told them we could start putting together for next year\u2019s Fourth of July parade. It\u2019s too close to this year\u2019s (holiday) to put a parade together with everybody committing to other parades, so now\u2019s the time to start working for the 250th<\/sup> year and make it a big celebration for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt takes a lot of preparation,\u201d he continued. \u201cI was on the Holiday at Home committee for years and helped with that parade so I do have a little bit of knowledge with that and I have some people\u2019s brains we can pick. My crew is more than willing to put in the hours to get this put back together. It\u2019s something that takes months to plan and organize.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Myers said sometime after this year\u2019s July 4 holiday, contact information will be released for those interested in being a part of next year\u2019s Independence Day parade, which will coincide with the America 250 celebration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Navy Club Ship 726 has served the community in previous years, including organizing Toys for Tots. He said the club\u2019s membership became older but added younger members have started to join, which allows the club to become more active in the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As noted on Monday, while there will be no Independence Day parade in Van Wert this year, other popular July 4 events will go on as usual, including the Van Wert County Historical Society’s Home for the Holidays (11 a.m. to 4 p.m.). and the city’s annual fireworks display at 10 p.m. at Van Wert High School. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor While there won\u2019t be an Independence Day parade in Van Wert this year, there is some good news \u2013 there will be a July 4 parade in the city in 2026. As reported on Monday, the Independence Day parade was most recently organized, set up and run by American Legion Post 178, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-193936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-01 00:06:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193936"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":193979,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193936\/revisions\/193979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}