Marines to land on Balboa Island

June Casagrande

It took 10 years, but the annual Balboa Island Parade finally landed

a Marine Corps band.

“Every year for 10 years we’ve asked them to participate,” said

City Councilman Steve Bromberg, a former Marine who serves on the

Parade Committee. “They listen to us at first, but then when we tell

them the parade is only 2 1/2 blocks long, that’s where we lose

them.”

This time was different. Late last year, the Newport Beach City

Council, led by Bromberg, unofficially adopted a Marine Corps

battalion at Camp Pendleton, the 1st Battalion 1st Marines. The relationship amounts to activities such as a formal city proclamation

and less formal events like getting residents to send Valentine’s Day

cards to the 1/1 troops in Iraq.

Though the battalion is unrelated to the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing

Band, the city’s affection toward the Corps in general seems to have

cinched the deal. The band will march in the parade, then play a 30-

to 45-minute concert on Marine Avenue afterward.

“I think that’s what made the difference; it’s their way of saying

thanks,” Bromberg said.

And, furthering the Marine Corps presence in the parade, this

year’s Grand Marshall will be a representative of the city’s adopted

battalion, Lt. Col. David J. Furness.

But the deferential tribute to U.S. troops isn’t expected to

dampen the whimsy of the notoriously playful parade. The major

players who have helped make the parade what it is will be out in

force -- groups like the Patio Chair Drill Team, a group of Balboa

Island Women who perform a regimented routine with patio chairs.

As always, the parade will feature plenty of residents who’ve

dressed up their golf carts as various fun things such as space ships

and actual ships as well as classic cars, local dignitaries and

Poodles on Parade, said Craig Page, a member of the Balboa Island

Improvement Assn. that puts on the parade every year.

“There’s one reason we come out every year and that’s to have

fun,” Page said.