A lot of volunteer hours go into organizing the parade: entry forms have to be collected and organized into a lineup, a theme, grand marshals and judges have to be selected and city streets have to be blocked off.
This year, there are just under 100 entries for the Fourth of July parade on Saturday that is organized by the Crescent City/Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce.
However, there could be more, said one organizer.
“We still have some more coming in,” said Sharyn Loughry, one of the parade organizers, adding that entries submitted after the deadline won’t be judged.
Starting at 10 a.m., the parade will snake down H Street from 9th Street, take a left at 3rd Street and then a right at K Street to Front Street.
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Veterans fit in with the parade’s theme: “Honor the past, imagine the future.”
“Honoring the past, that’s why the world is the way it is,” Loughry said.
The chamber’s Fourth of July planning committee selects the theme and grand marshal from suggestions the public submitted.
This is Loughry’s first year organizing the parade, but she had a lot of help from veteran Fourth of July organizers.
“A lot of people have already been doing it,” she said. “You learn from the past.”
Chamber board members, such as Jan Wortman who has been helping Loughry, provide “continuity,” she added.
It can almost seem like everyone in town is either in the parade or watching from the sidewalks. That’s part of what makes the Fourth of July so appealing, Loughry said.
“I think (locals) enjoy seeing people they know and cheering them on,” she said.
That give the parade a sense of community, which a lot of outsiders who travel to Crescent City for the weekend appreciate.
“Again, it’s that small town feel,” Loughry said. “It’s just a friendly, warm-hearted atmosphere ... They don’t have that in the big towns.”
