West Seattle Grand Parade 2016, report #4: The people

July 23, 2016 10:59 pm
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 |   West Seattle Grand Parade | West Seattle news

Behind the scenes and on the route, participants and volunteers, it takes hundreds of people to create a parade. Here are some of them, before and during today’s West Seattle Grand Parade:

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That’s Clay Eals, executive director of the Southwest Seattle Historical Society, whose three-plus decades of working in and for West Seattle made him a great choice for the Orville Rummel Community Service Trophy, explained in our June report announcing his selection. The Grand Parade always has a Grand Marshal, too, and this year it was the Schmitz Family, represented by Dietrich Schmitz and his mother Vicki Schmitz Block:

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The family’s legacy includes the donation of Schmitz Park and its namesake nearby elementary school as well as Emma Schmitz Memorial Overlook on Beach Drive. (Here’s video of the Schmitz Family members and Eals toward the start of the parade.)

Also driving the parade route … longtime West Seattle community advocate Pete Spalding behind the wheel of the West Seattle Food Bank van:

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Did you see the classic O’Neill Plumbing (WSB sponsor) truck in the parade? We caught up earlier with Tim and Todd O’Neill:
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Members of another well-known local family, the Menashes, were seen waving from the Seafair Commodores‘ boat float:

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And Potter Construction (WSB sponsor) was in the parade too – proprietor Gary Potter is a supporter also through his participation in the parade-presenting Rotary Club.

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Another local entrepreneur was seen skateboarding – Greg Whittaker from Mountain to Sound Outfitters worked the crowd in The Junction, with his parade entry nearby:

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The West Seattle YMCA (WSB sponsor) is a parade sponsor as well as participant:

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Riding with the Seafair Scholarship Program for Women candidates in convertibles, the immediate past West Seattle Hi-Yu Senior Court Queen Kelly Crum, who is vying for Miss Seafair.

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This year’s winner will be announced before the Torchlight Parade downtown one week from tonight. Royalty was also in view before the parade, the “Pirates and Princesses” breakfast at Brookdale Admiral Heights, just north of the parade route, honored the longstanding tradition of hospitality for visiting parade-float participants. West Seattle Hi-Yu Senior and Junior Court members posed with Seafair Pirates, whose land-borne vessel Moby Duck was at the ready outside:

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And then there are the parade’s longtime volunteer co-coordinator, including Dave Vague (below right) at the check-in table on the northwest corner of California/Lander:

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And co-coordinator Jim Edwards was visible on his motorcycle riding up and down the parade route, checking on how things were going, communicating with other amateur-radio operators embedded along the way .. we also caught him making a photo stop when the motorcycle drill teams were done:

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The riders’ end-of-parade ceremony is part of another report still in the works.

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