The White Haven community will come together again this weekend to continue its 200th anniversary celebration with a Memorial Day Parade and 200th Birthday Family Fun Day at Lehigh Park.
The celebration begins Sunday, May 26, at 1 p.m. with the Memorial Day parade.
The parade will step off in East Side Borough and proceed across the Route 940 bridge into White Haven where it will turn left onto Main Street, right onto Northumberland Street and then left on Towanda Street, ending at Lehigh Park. State Sen. David Argall will join borough officials at the park.
A highlight of the parade be a float carrying the 2024 Poppy King and Queen. Selected to rule over this year’s festivities are 3-year-old Poppy Queen Melina Walsh and 5-year-old Poppy King Tyler Kearns. To be eligible, the king and queen must be between 3 and 5 years of age and reside within the 18661 zip code mailing address. Parents and/or a family member submit nominations for the king and queen.
A committee consists of members of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6615, the White Haven Marine Corps League Detachment 1039, borough council and the Greater White Haven Chamber of Commerce. The king and queen receive a stipend to buy new clothes for the parade, a tiara for the queen and a crown for the king, and scepters.
The parade also will include a bagpiper and the Crestwood High School marching band.
Immediately following the parade, the 200th birthday celebration gets underway at Lehigh Park. Activities will include axe throwing, an inflatable house for kids, life-sized “connect four” and face painting. There will be all kinds of vendors and a tricky tray as well as plenty of the borough’s 200th anniversary “swag” available.
Additionally, the White Haven Area Community Library will sponsor a FOAM Party for kids in Lehigh Park after the parade.
Leading up to the Memorial Day celebration, White Haven Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6615 will be selling poppies to remember and honor those who died in service to the country. The poppies will be sold at Main Street and Route 940 on Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The 200th anniversary celebration, which began in January with fireworks in Linesville Park, will continue with a 200th anniversary street festival on July 26.
The 200th anniversary celebration is a community-wide event supported by the borough, businesses, community organizations, veterans groups and the Greater White Haven Chamber of Commerce.
Linda Sensenbach Miller, president of the Greater White Haven Chamber of Commerce, said she and members of the organization are excited about the celebration.
“I am delighted to assist the Marine Corps League Detachment 1039 as well as the White Haven and East Side Boroughs in our annual Memorial Celebration in which we celebrate our veterans,” she related. She pointed out there will be many organizations, bands, floats, fire engines, ambulance and police participating in the parade route from East Side to the borough’s beautiful Lehigh Park.
The borough is named in honor of Josiah White whose Lehigh Navigation system was vital to coal and lumber transport. White’s Lehigh Canal linked coal from the valleys to the lucrative markets and transformed White Haven, once a logging settlement, into a thriving community.
According to the “History of Luzerne County Pennsylvania” edited by H. C. Bradsby, the first settler of White Haven was John Lines who arrived in April of 1824 with his family from Hanover Township. Where he settled was called “Linesville” for many years. After his first log cabin was destroyed by a fire, he eventually built the first hewed-log house and the first tavern, which in time became the property of the Lehigh Navigation & Coal Company.
