Sherry Carpenter
She keeps the parade marching on
It was just one phone call, 25 years ago. Coralville resident Sherry Carpenter, 62, just wanted to know where the Fourth of July parade route was going to go because her neighborhood group wanted to participate.
What she got was a job.
This year will be the 25th, and last, year Carpenter will be the 4th Fest parade’s chairwoman.
“It’s been such a fun thing, and I really have second thoughts about giving it up,” she said. “But it’s time. It’s been wonderful, and I’m sure they’ll appreciate some fresh ideas.”
It wasn’t hard to accept the job as parade chairwoman, Carpenter said. Volunteering is just a part of life, and it all goes back to her mother, Gerry Lackender.
“She was always an avid volunteer and believed in it,” she said. “I do, too. I saw how happy the people my mom helped were. If it weren’t for volunteers, nothing would get done.”
The first Sunday of every month at her church, Zion Lutheran, Carpenter makes monkey bread.
“Because people like that smell, and it gets them to come into the parish hall,” she said. “And I love to bake, I get that from my mom, too.”
For years, Carpenter helped organized the volunteers when RAGBRAI came through town. Every year, she helps Aisle of Lights, Coralville’s holiday celebration. Carpenter spent two years on the fundraising committee for the Pathways Adult Day Health Center in Iowa City.
Every year, she also helps organize the Christmas party at Chatham Oaks, a care facility in Iowa City for people 16 and older with a mental or physical disability.
Carpenter said during her time as parade chairwoman, she has appreciated the help from the city of Coralville and other volunteers.
“(City leaders) have given me so much support and help in what I do. They never tell me how to run the parade,” she said. “The community gets so involved in that, but then again, without those volunteers we wouldn’t have as great a parade.”
People everywhere should consider giving time back to the community, Carpenter said.
“Because it just makes you feel so good,” she said. “If I can do it, anyone can.”
— Kathryn Fiegen
