Parade prompts spirit of community

Jun. 25, 2013  PLYMOUTH EAGLE.

PICK UP YOUR COPY OF THE JULY 4TH PARADE LINE-UP IN THIS THURSDAY’S EDITION OF THE NORTHVILLE  EAGLE

The streets of Northville will be a sea of red, white and blue on July 4 when the annual Independence Day Parade marches through downtown to delight the crowd of about 20,000 or so.

“Every year, it just seems to grow and get larger and larger,” said Shari Peters, president of the Northville Community Foundation which organizes and manages the parade each year as a volunteer effort. This is the 15th year the foundation has taken on the task.

Peters said that real heroes of the event are the volunteers and the com- mittee members who work a full-year on the event. Each of the events, like the vintage cars or the floats or bands, is led by a volunteer who helps organ- ize that specific segment of the parade.

This year, the theme chosen by the Parade Committee is America, Yesterday, Today and Forever, and Peters said she expects to see it depict- ed on several floats and with marchers. The parade will officially begin on the dot of 10 a.m. when the long line of marchers leaves the stag- ing area at the foot of Griswold and Main Street. The parade will travel up to Main Street, from Main to Rogers Street, from Rogers to Cady, from Cady to Wing and from Wing Street to Fairbrook.

Peters said that as usual, there will be plenty of music, several larger floats, marching bands, clowns, children’s characters, vintage and classic cars, the very popular bike parade, sponsored by Meijer and Hunter Orthodontics and the pet parade.

“There will be so much more,” she said, “that’s just a hint of what you’ll see.” Festivities will begin with the Ward Church Choir singing the National Anthem while the Color Guard stands at attention. Radio personality Lisa Barry and Dr. Bill Demray will be the official emcees of the parade again this year.

This year, the parade will also fea- ture several children’s characters including Paws from the Detroit Tigers, Shooter from the Whalers, and several surprise visitors. As has become a tradition, the Northville High School marching band and the Plymouth Fife and Drum Corps will march along with many others.

“This is a real community event and every year I’m just amazed at what a terrific sense of real America this parade displays,” Peters said. “I keep thinking it can’t get better, and every year, it does.”

|News Plymouth Michigan