DYSART – As Americans across the country celebrated the 250th anniversary of the signing and adoption of the Declaration of Independence on Saturday, July 4, Club Dysart hosted the town’s annual three-day 4th of July celebration. Highlights included the well-attended Dysart Lions Club Grand Parade late Saturday morning. The heavy rains of the past week had finally relented, leading to mostly sunny skies and temperatures in the low 80s, along with a high muggy factor and precious little wind. Dysart American Legion Post Commander Kevin Eikamp and Post Adjutant Billie Van Egmond were at the front of the parade, leading the Color Guard. Close behind, driving a bright yellow convertible, parade grand marshal Ken Tanner ferried Dysart Lions Club Citizen of the Year Mary Wankowicz, who counts being mayor pro tem among her many volunteer commitments. First responders from Dysart, Clutier, Traer, Cedar-Mt. Auburn, Garrison, and La Porte City were well represented and the tractorcade was especially impressive this year. Reunion classes included the Dysart-Geneseo Class of 1986. The Dysart Torpedoes youth swim team had one of the most dynamic parade floats — riding atop a flatbed trailer, the lively group sent streams of cooling water into the crowds gathered along Main Street using various water toys. But the highlight of the parade had to be Mayor Tim Glenn, spectacularly dressed as our nation’s first president and founding father, George Washington, atop Tama County Mutual/Eikamp Insurance’s Semiquincentennial (250 years) float. Smiling and waving to the crowds from under a white ponytailed wig, an American flag streaming behind him as he held it across his right shoulder, Glenn was the epitome of small-town patriotic pride – pride which 250 years later continues to form the bedrock of the greatest nation on God’s earth.