Wantagh celebrates Independence Day

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Wantagh’s annual Fourth of July parade brought out hundreds of flag-waving Wantagh residents who lined the route from Park Avenue to Wantagh Elementary School. Participants of the American Legion Post 1273-led parade included Vietnam War veterans, members of the Wantagh Fire Department and Wantagh-Levittown Volunteer Ambulance Corps and local Boy and Girl Scouts.

Patriotic tunes filled the air as several pipe bands, including the Wantagh American Legion Pipe Band, played their bagpipes while marching by spectators. Other musical groups in the parade included the Comanche Raiders marching band, whose members were all dressed in bright and colorful Native American-inspired outfits, and the Wantagh High School marching band.

Among the parade floats were a truck decorated with sunflowers from the Paumanacke Garden Club, and a car decked out in red, white and blue courtesy of the Daughters of the American Revolution, with one member waving the hand of an Uncle Sam doll out the passenger side window.

Miss Wantagh 2017 Samantha Walsh, her court and the six finalists of the 2018 pageant anchored the procession, waving to passerby from convertibles driven by locals. Following the parade, the winner of the 2018 Miss Wantagh pageant was crowned on the elementary school’s front steps.