FIRST CHANCE: If you’re not in the parade already, and you do any amount of volunteer work – you (and any family members who want to join you!) are invited to be in the first-ever “Volunteers of West Seattle Grand Parade Marching Unit” (more like walking the 2-mile route) WSB is helping organize for Saturday’s West Seattle Grand Parade. Here’s all you have to do: Show up at California/Lander (here’s a map) around 10 am. Look for the “Volunteers of West Seattle Grand Parade Marching Unit” sign (if you can’t find us, call the WSB business number, which your editor here will be carrying, 206/293-6302; program it into your phone, might come in handy someday for something else!). Bonus reward if you wear some costume element related to your volunteer work (T-shirt for a school where you volunteer? sprig of ivy if you pull weeds at parks? or? as for me, maybe I’ll make a hat out of an old keyboard): You get a FREE BEER OR SODA at West 5 afterward. We’re not planning fancy maneuvers – just celebrating the volunteers who keep West Seattle’s engines running (speaking of which, we have a Mini-Cooper to lead the unit!). We’ll have signs, but you’re also welcome to carry a handheld sign for the group you volunteer with, if you’d like.

SECOND CHANCE: Furry Faces Foundation just put out an urgent bulletin – they need a flatbed for their parade entry – the one they usually use is suddenly out of commission. Last year, you may recall, this was their festive parade entry:

This year, the theme is “Cat-sino,” and if you can not only lend ’em a flatbed but bring it to Beveridge Place Pub in Morgan Junction this Thursday around 5:30 pm (or afterward), you can help decorate, and you can join F-Cubed in The Parade. Got a question about exactly what Furry Faces needs? E-mail Teri Ensley: furryfaces@hotmail.com — meantime, watch for more parade-countdown updates as Saturday gets closer!