Grantham Old Home Day parade seeks volunteers and vendors

Grantham’s Old Home Day parade lined up at 9:45 a.m. on Yankee Barn Road and stepped off at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, June 27, sending Route 10 traffic through town from Yankee Barn Road to Dunbar Hill Road before turn-around and pick-up at the Grantham Town Building. The town paired the parade with a final call for vendors and volunteers, making clear the day depended on community turnout as much as the schedule.

The main celebration ran from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Grantham Recreation Park, 19 Shedd Road, and the town said the event was rain or shine. The recreation page asked, “Would you like to be a vendor??” and added, “It takes a village to run an event this size,” reflecting the push to fill space for the annual gathering.

A town document laid out where help was needed: set-up and decorations, parking, wristband sales, inflatable supervision and clean-up. Volunteers received one complimentary wristband valued at $15. That structure turned Old Home Day into more than a parade route and park program. It also required hands-on staffing across the town’s busiest summer hours.

The day’s format followed a familiar Grantham pattern. A pancake breakfast ran from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. at Grantham United Methodist Church, then the parade moved down Route 10 and the crowd shifted to the recreation park. Previous Old Home Day listings showed the event’s range expanding beyond a simple procession, with live music, inflatables, water slides, rock climbing, games, vendors, crafters, artisans and food trucks among the attractions.

Another 2026 listing pointed to pony rides, a petting zoo, a chicken barbecue run by Grantham Fire EMS, face painting, a magician, and a rock-climbing wall. Together, those details showed why the celebration has become one of Grantham’s main public gathering points, drawing families, vendors and volunteers into a single day built around the park, the parade route and the town’s shared schedule.