NEWBURYPORT — For decades, the Jimmy Fund collection has been a key part of the parade at the end of Yankee Homecoming.
Members from all sorts of organizations and volunteers have walked the route collecting donations in their buckets over the years.
For many years, former City Councilor C. Bruce Brown helmed the annual Jimmy Fund collection, but Brown decided to step down this year and turned the effort over to annual festival volunteer Jason Lacroix.
One of Lacroix's ideas was to contact the U.S. Senate office of Bruce Brown's son, Scott, to ask if the senator would be willing to take part in Sunday's parade and join in the Jimmy Fund effort in honor of his father's years of volunteering.
The senator agreed and will be on hand with his family members. The Browns will join dozens of other volunteers — about 40 to 50 people total— from Boy Scouts to Little League players, who will hold out buckets to parade viewers.
The goal is to raise as much as possible for the organization, all of which goes directly to the charity, Lacroix said. While the collections have been "up and down over the past five to seven years," for the last few years, Yankee Homecoming has sent about $4,000 to $7,000 to the Jimmy Fund," he said.
"Not too long ago, 15 to 20 years ago, we used to collect $15,000 to $20,000," Lacroix said. "We're trying to get back up there."
Since its founding in 1948, the Jimmy Fund has supported the fight against cancer in children and adults at Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Each year after the parade ends, Yankee Homecoming volunteers bring the buckets with the donations of loose change and bills to the Newburyport Bank, where it's separated and counted.
"I can remember the days when Jimmy Fund used to send down sports figures," Lacroix said. "We hope to get the Jimmy Fund more involved to help us help them."
Yankee Homecoming volunteer Michele Norton is gathering players from the Amesbury Little League, where her boyfriend sits on the board, to take up the collection during the parade for the second year in a row.
The sister of one of the boys walking with the Little League was diagnosed with leukemia recently and will undergo two years of treatment at the Dana-Farber clinic in Boston, Norton said. Cheryl Munick, next year's general chairwoman of Yankee Homecoming, is also walking in the parade with her family, collecting for the Jimmy Fund.
Any donations that resident Ralph Ayers receives from participants in his free historical tours during Yankee Homecoming Week will be given directly to the Jimmy Fund, as well.
"We have a lot more kids than we did last year," Norton said. "We're hoping with more kids and the weather — it's supposed to be beautiful on Sunday — it'll be nice, at the very least, to top what we did last year."
Norton said Yankee Homecoming collected about $6,500 last year.
The Jimmy Fund collection at Yankee Homecoming was one of the first fundraisers for the cancer clinic, Lacroix said.
"It's just a great thing," Norton said.
IF YOU GO
What: Yankee Homecoming Parade
When: Sunday, Aug. 1, 12:30 p.m. start
Where: High Street
FYI: The Newburyport Fire Department and the Yankee Homecoming Parade committee have designated an area of the route that will be noise-reduced. The section of High Street will be between Fruit Street and Lime Street. The fire engines will significantly reduce or stop the sirens to help people who are concerned with the loud sounds of the horns and sirens.
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