Banner day for American spirit

It takes a village to put on the Laguna Beach Patriots Day Parade: from the all-volunteer committee that organizes it to the half of the town that marches — to the other half that watches.

Ninety-one entries will participate in the 41st annual parade, set to begin at 11 a.m. Saturday. The police department motorcycle escort will lead the parade from the Laguna Beach High School staging area, down Park Avenue to Glenneyre Street and then to Forest Avenue where the VIP reviewing stand and judges will be in front of City Hall.

Participants will include Boy and Girl Scout troops, veterans, military and school bands, businesses, civic and environmental groups, representatives of the arts and car clubs.

The theme of the 2007 parade is “Proudly We Hail,” taken from the lyrics of “The Star Spangled Banner.”

“Our flag of stars and stripes is perhaps the most readily recognized symbol that binds us together as members of our community and to our nation,” Parade Assn. President Charles Quilter said. “Francis Scott Key’s words also remind us of the many from all walks of life who have given of themselves in support of the idea of bringing all together as a nation. “This year, it is they who proudly we hail.”

“The Star Spangled Banner’s” history as our national anthem is not that much older than the Patriots Day Parade, which was founded to honor the flag that inspired Frances Scott Key’s lyrics.

Congress formally adopted the music and Francis Scott Key’s poem for the lyrics on March 3, 1931.

The first Patriots Day Parade in Laguna Beach was held Feb. 22, 1967, and it was the dream of local resident Emily Ross “to instill in our youth love of country and respect for the flag.”

With the backing of fellow members of the Patience Wright Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution aided by the Laguna Beach Exchange Club and its President Roy Marcom Jr., the parade became a Laguna tradition.

Some of the parade participants on Saturday are the children or even grandchildren of “Lagunatics” — the people, not the musical, who themselves participated as children.

Ross moved to Placerville in 1978 and founded a DAR chapter there, but she retuned to Laguna in 1979 for one last ride in the parade. She died the next year on Memorial Day.

The parade continued to be organized by volunteers, smiled on by fortune. Only once was the parade canceled due to rain, although a couple of times, the marchers trudged on despite dark skies and damp footing.

George Washington’s birthday was the original parade day. Later, the event was moved to the Saturday between Washington and President Lincoln’s birthday, but chancy weather and the spring break prompted organizers to move it to the first Saturday in March.