For people parking at the free MTA train station at the Beacon stop (weekends are free parking), Dutchess County has agreed to designate a bus to be a free shuttle service from the train station up to Main Street, making a loop all day (with a break for lunch during the parade).

Amanda Sammon, Assistant Director of Public Transit for Dutchess County, along with the support of Michael Grattini, Director of Public Transit, with the encouragement of Beacon’s City Administrator Chris White, spearheaded the move to designate the free shuttle bus for Spirit of Beacon Day attendees who are parking for free in the MTA Train parking lot, as well as those living in the Forrestal Heights community and surrounding area. The drop-off point for attendees will be Main Street and Fishkill Avenue, but up a little further near the Salvation Army parking lot, so as not to crowd that intersection.

This bus will not impact or replace other bus routes that go on Sunday.

How The Free Bus Will Work For Spirit Of Beacon Day

SERVICE SCHEDULE
Service will run from 11am-4:30pm, with a break between 1-2pm, when the parade runs.

Route loop will take 20-25 minutes to complete

The Shuttle Bus will begin at the Beacon Train Station at 11am. It will continue driving the route on the map shown above until 1pm, at which point the driver will park at the Beacon Train Station and take a lunch break.

This route should take approximately 20 to 25 minutes to perform the entire loop, so riders will not have to wait too long if they miss it the first time.

At 2pm, the Shuttle Bus will leave the Beacon Train Station and continue performing the same loops until 4:30pm. The Shuttle Bus will only load/unload passengers at the three agreed upon stops:

• Beacon MTA Train Station

• The intersection of Route 52/Fishkill Avenue and Main Street (with the actual stop at the Salvation Army driveway)

• Forrestal Heights

The Spirit of Beacon Committee presented the agenda to the City Council and the public tonight, September 11, 2023. Listen to it here.

Beacon's highly anticipated event, The Spirit of Beacon Day, takes place on Sunday, September 24th from 11am-4pm. This event was established in 1977 in response to racial tensions between Beacon's youth and the community. As a result, various community leaders from our local churches, library, police, City Council, and others came together to figure out what to do. A solution proposed was a community day. Said one of the original backbones of the Spirit of Beacon Day, Nan Whittingham, about the origin in the Beacon Evening News in 1986: "Everyone was in agreement that we, the community, should get to know one another better. It was agreed we should learn to know each other's likes and dislikes regarding conversation, feelings, entertainment, education and food."

Come to enjoy a variety of different foods from professionals, churches and organizations, as well as get to know services available at vendor tables. Music performances at 2 stages will be going all day at the Main Stage at Veterans Place, and the secondary stage at Cross Street. The big parade kicks off at 1pm and goes down Main Street.

The day starts at 11am, where Main Street is blocked off from South Brett Street (Key Food) to Teller Avenue (Yankee Clipper Diner). Both businesses are one of our sponsors this year, and we thank them very much. It is with sponsor support that this day can get produced. Sponsors this year include:

Beacon of Lights:

Key Food
The Roundhouse
The Station
Carter's Restaurant
For the second year in a row, Beacon Recreation Department where financing of Stage and Sound at Veterans Place Stage, and the Stage at Cross Street was provided.

Mountain Sponsors:
Remark Printing
Verplanck Auto
Faust Design Build

River Sponsors:
Hudson Valley Food Hall
Rabe and Co.
Yanarella Dance
Beacon Natural
Hudson Valley Credit Union
Dennis Vetrano Law
Bar Down Studio

Spirit Sponsors:

Last Outpost
The Pink Unicorn
Feeds R Us
JonCar Realty
Sara Mikulsky Wellness Physical Therapy
Supreme Pianos of NY
Kitchen Sink
District Social
M+T Bank
Beacon Digital + Main Office Co-Work Space

FOOD
We heard from the people, and the people wanted more street food. Last year, Beacon's restaurants were so happy because people ordered and filled the tables. This year, we dedicated more vendor tables to food choices, so come prepared to eat from:

St. Rocco's
Sons and Daughters of Italy
Beacon Boi hot dogs from Paul Yeaple formerly of Poppy's
I Am Beacon
BHS Class of 2025
Pat's Yard Vibes
St. Joachim - St. John the Evangelical
Coast 2 Coast
Beacon Light Tabernacle
The Mosque Masjid Ur Rashid
Tabernacle of Christ Church
Mama Mama La's Food for the Soul
Key Food grill
Key Food fresh Kettle Corn
Tommy Empanadas
Carter's Restaurant
Single and Hungry

MUSIC
Playing on the Main Stage at Veterans Place:
The Beacon Players
School of Rock Band
GG & the Shades
The parade will roll through, and then Bosco and the Storm will kick off followed by the Beacon Rising Choir and closing out with TonyE, returning all the way from NYC for us.

PARADE
Most importantly, who will we be seeing in the parade?
So many of you, and if you haven not registered yet, please do so now! Even if you march every year, please get into our spreadsheet.
The Rombout Middle School band will be marching and playing this year.
Yanarella School of Dance
Artists on the March
Passion The Adult Dance Studio
The incredible Marching Cobras are returning this year!
As are the Highlands Bag Pipe Band.
Slater Chemical Fire Company
Beacon National Honor Society
Ballet Arts
Beacon Girl Scouts
Beacon Light Hawks Pathfinders
And others.

For our Table Vendors, lots of awareness is coming to you, and we have saved tables specially for After School Clubs of the Beacon City School District.

We saved you a spot to come out of the school and onto the street so that everyone can meet you and see the effort you bring to the students in the district.

Students for Gender Equality have signed up, and we hope more do as well.

KIDS SECTION

The Kids Section this year will include activities from Compass Arts and Kumon.

PARKING
Please tell your friends to park in the free parking lots in Beacon. These include the DMV Parking Lot, the Police Station parking lot right here at Town Hall, and down at the Train Station. Dutchess County has agreed to consider running the free Beacon Loop to help bring people up from that parking lot.

VOLUNTEERS

As for volunteers:

We need a sign painter for 2 big wooden boards.
People to pass out flyers.
People to chalk yard signs with bathroom and parking lot signs.
Stay up to date at Spirit of Beacon's website: www.spiritofbeacon.org and follow at Instagram @spiritofbeacon and on Facebook @spiritofbeaconday

Both the Beacon Farmers Market and the Beacon Flea have graciously closed for this weekend in order to open up their parking lots to people coming in for the Spirit of Beacon Day. Both the DMV lot and the Henry Street Lot will be open.

All of the other lots around town are also open and usual, and are marked with blue Parking signs. Find pictures of them below. See more detail at A Little Beacon Blog’s Free Parking Guide.

City of Beacon Police Chief Sans Frost was kind enough to take us around to different porta potty location points. We want to make them convenient to you, and he wants to make sure we can find a spot that isn’t a parking spot, because he *really* wants to make all of the city’s free parking lot spaces available to you… Stay tuned for a fill list of free parking lot spaces in Beacon!

With his help, we have a great porta potty plan! Volunteer Jennifer Garfield-Abrams has excitedly taken this on to help coordinate!

Oh the things you don’t necessarily think of right away but are super important!