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By Robby McKittrick
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Hale Reservation celebrated its 100th anniversary on Saturday, October 13, with an all-day, outdoor music festival.
Despite the potential for rain, Hale decided to keep the festival outdoors. The day included six different bands, a beer garden, two food trucks, games for the children, and a fire pit.
The event was organized by Paula McLaughlin and the rest of the Hale Reservation staff and families.
“We are going to go with the flow,” McLaughlin told one of the band members while it was raining at the start of the festival. “We’re Hale.”
“[One of our worker’s] would alway say there is no such thing as bad weather, there is just bad clothing,” joked Director of Philanthropy Lorraine Sousa.
The event was advertised in a variety of outlets, and around 350 people bought tickets for the festival. Some of the people who bought the tickets were associated with Hale Reservation, while others were just interested in the festival.
“There is a definitely a mix of where people are coming from,” explained Sousa.
The festival culminates a year-long celebration for Hale Reservation. A couple of the staff members described the significance of the anniversary.
“It’s our 100th birthday, so all year, we have been doing events,” said Sousa. “This is our community-wide event … We are about opening up this place to whoever wants to come, so it seemed more fitting that we do a celebration.”
“It shows the longevity of the property and how much use it has gotten over the years,” said Paul McLaughlin, Paula McLaughlin’s husband. “It’s been a year-long celebration of bringing people back to celebrate in many ways.”
Other events in the past year include honoring the 100 marathon runners in their organization, the different camp partnerships, the Hale summer club, and a scouting reunion.
For the past year-plus, Hale has hosted a variety of live bands. In total, they have hosted six concerts, and four of the bands at Saturday’s festival played in the past for Hale.
On Saturday’s celebration, Hale had six different bands play throughout the day. One of the bands, who also played at Hale Reservation in a prior occasion, was a local band called “Late Night Thoughts.”
The band plays acoustic pop songs and consists of two seniors at Brandeis University, Michael Harlow, who plays the guitar, and Brian Rauch, who is the singer. The group has almost 400,000 streams on Spotify.
“We are here for the vibes,” said the duo. “It’s a different format for a performance, but its exciting … It should be a fun interaction with the crowd.”
Despite the initially tough weather, which eventually gave way to blue skies, it was a special day for Hale Reservation.
“For those of us who are connected to Hale, it’s a great opportunity to be here,” said Sousa. "Hopefully for those who are not yet connected, it’s a way to introduce them to us.”
