Patriotic success

While awards were presented to the winners of the 2008 Patriots Day Parade at Tivoli Too, volunteers were rewarded with lunch at City Hall.

Parade officials handed out 27 awards, selected from the 93 entries that marched and rode through town under gray skies Saturday.

“It was a great success despite Mother Nature’s breath of cold air and a little spritzing just after the last entry passed the reviewing stand,” said Sandi Werthe, entry chairwoman.

A slight decline in attendance was blamed on the gloomy weather, but more so on the conflict with Dana Point’s Festival of Whales Parade.

“That has cost us participants and visitors,” said parade committee President Charles Quilter II. “And for the past few years, we have not been able to get television coverage. Apparently, Dana Point has more leverage with Cox Cable.”

The Patriots Day Parade has been on the first Saturday in March for decades. Dana Point only has competed for attendance and participation for about five years. The City Council voted Tuesday at the request of Mayor Pro Tem Cheryl Kinsman to approach Dana Point officials about changing their date to the second Saturday in March, which Quilter said would benefit both events.

However, neither weather nor attendance affected the enthusiasm with which awards were presented to participants.

The President’s Trophy was awarded to the Southern California Peruvian Paso Horse Club that included recently retired Police Capt. Danell Adams, on a horse she acquired last October and had never before ridden in a parade.

“They just knocked our socks off,” Quilter said.

Grand Marshal Harry Lawrence, who served in the U. S. Navy in World War II, presented his trophy to the Camp Pendleton Young Marines Oaks Middle School from Ontario who won the Band Sweepstakes.

Marching bands in the parade were judged by four members of the Southern California School Band and Orchestra Assn.

Laguna Beach Elementary School Band came in first in its bracket. The Los Angeles Scots Pipe Band won the adult band category.

All other entries, except for the automobiles, were judged by former Arts Commissioner Suzi Chauvel, Gary and Arts Commission Chair Nancy Beverage, with an accumulated 17 years experience. The combined color guard of Laguna Beach posts of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion was picked as the best color guard over age 21.

The parade is an all-volunteer effort, with a committee of 12: Quilter, Vice President Douglas Miller, Treasurer Sandi Werthe, Hal Werthe, Jean Law, American Legion VFW liaison Richard Moore, Don Black, retired Fire Capt. Eugene D’Isabella, Ed and Kathy Hanke, announcer Sonny Budd, communication chief John Kountz, Anne Wood, Hospitality Chair Sande St. John and Gavin Kentle, who works with Susan Cannon and Ron Lutz in the city’s Community Services Department and Police Sgt. Robert Rahaeuser to keep the parade in line with city requirements.

Karen Ford is the liaison with the school district for the essay and cover art competitions.

Jim Rue serves as web master and is a parking monitor on parade day.

“I’ve been volunteering for the parade for about 10 years,” Rue said. “It makes up for never being chosen as a hall monitor in school.”

It takes almost a village on parade day to keep things moving. Sandi Werthe estimated as many as 100 volunteers are on tap.

The standing joke is that if you are not volunteering, you are either in the parade or lining the streets to watch it.

Howard Levin was, as usual, the chief starter. Jim and Barbara Pemberton and Carolyn Miller checked in the entries.

Miller’s son, Bill Morris, has been the parking marshal for the past three years.

They will be moving to Tennessee and he has turned over his job to Mike Lyons, born and bred Laguna, class of ’85 Laguna Beach High School graduate.

Laguna Beach Emergency Communication Team chief Kountz was assisted on parade day by Jim and Alex Walcott, Arlene Schwartz, Lynn Taylor and Bob Lawson.

They were stationed along the parade route, monitoring the police scanner and providing information to announcers Budd and George Woods.

2008 was also Budd’s swan song. He is retiring from the microphone at City Hall.

Diane Connell and Barbara Rostolder served lunch to at least 100 Explorers and police officers who were on traffic duty during the parade.

Kathleen Halstead, Fidel Benitez, Knute Lehmann and Paul Coleman represented Laguna’s Explorer Post.

They estimated as many as 60 Explorers from Newport Beach, Santa Ana, the city of Bell, Tustin, Irvine, Border Patrol and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office volunteered for the parade.

St. John arranged for the victuals served in the City Hall lunchroom.

K’ya restaurant catered a buffet in the City Council Chamber for other volunteers and special guests.

“The thing to remember about our parade is that it is done on the backs of the volunteers,” Quilter said. “Without them, we don’t have a parade.”