West Seattle Hi-Yu at Torchlight: Float award and Seafair princess!

The West Seattle Hi-Yu Float was fairly early in the running order at the Seafair Torchlight Parade (which hasn’t ended yet – at least not for those of us on the southern end of 4th Avenue), and it was preceded by a banner announcing it’s the winner of the Princess Award. Last year’s float won a Torchlight Parade award too – the Smile Award. We’ll add video of the float in tonight’s parade when we’re back at HQ. ADDED 11:15 PM: Also congratulations to Sivona Lingle, who represented Hi-Yu in the Miss Seafair competition – she came in third runner-up. “West Seattle Hi-Yu is very proud of her!” Carol Winston tells WSB. ADDED 12:20 AM: Float video. A few more parade visuals to come, as we check our cameras – sorry we don’t have video/pix of Sivona and Alki Community rep Keili Geller in the pre-parade Miss Seafair competition, but will add links to any we find. ADDED 1:26 AM: Here’s the KIRO video of the Miss Seafair announcement – starting with Sivona being announced as Third Princess. (Full results are listed on the Seafair website.) And our clip of the kids (including a West Seattle boy – though we have to find out from his mom if he’s visible in our video) who won the wooden-hydro contest, dragging them behind their bikes:

KIRO has the :30 clip of this from the parade contest online; see it here.

ADDED SUNDAY AFTERNOON: From David, dad of Zachary, the local hydro-contest winner, a couple photos (by the way, that’s him about seven seconds into our video, his mom Lisa says):

From a note he shared, which was also going to friends and family:

We built the hydros from 1″ plywood; these kids were randomly selected from 100+ entries. 10 kids (including Zach) won free bikes, which were donated by the Seafair Clowns and some other funding source (I heard mixed answers…McLendon’s? Boeing?). We assembled at 5:30, got our rides set up, waited on Broad St. for around an hour, and then merged into the fair, right behind Teatro ZinZanni.

… I have one suggestion for any Seattle resident: FIND SOME WAY TO GET IN THIS PARADE. It’s an amazing experience to walk through the thousands of people and realize how many you never get to know, and they’re living their lives in the same town, and they’re the same as you, and they’re very, very different. It grounds you in the community, and makes you feel more connected to this city, than any civic event I’ve ever attended.

We didn’t get a good photo of West Seattle’s Most Famous Politician in the parade, but David (also mentioning that even the dignitaries were accessible and friendly) did – just before the parade, anyway (the mayor was in a rain jacket by the time his car passed us):

One last note – one of the parade’s most stirring sights each year is a huge U.S. flag carried by Coast Guardsmen and Coast Guard Auxiliary members. They’ve put up a YouTube clip:

Jim July 25, 2009 (10:32 pm)

KIRO parade coverage ends at 10 sharp as the all city band was just coming into view. no pirates either. A couple years ago we had grandstand seats. Once 10 PM hit the TV coverage stopped, the flood lights turned off, and everybody in the grandstands found themselves sitting in the dark watching the last 15 minutes of the parade.

Tim & Carol Winston July 25, 2009 (11:34 pm)

Although Keili Geller Representing the Alki Community was not a runner-up, she also did a fantastic job for West Seattle in the Scholarship Program. We know that both Keili and Sivona had a great time!

Mark W July 25, 2009 (11:48 pm)

Kudos to Steve Fischer, the designer of both last year’s float and the current float. Great job, Steve!

WSB July 25, 2009 (11:55 pm)

Jim, I’ve never figured out why they cut it off. Particularly on a Saturday night, an affiliate – and particularly these days, when being an affiliate is not that exciting a deal – has the right to let previous programming run long. Thanks for reminding me why I prefer to watch the parade in person (even if I’m surrounded subsequently by people who eventually stand up, move into the street, and block my view, maybe next year I should try the grandstand) … TR

miws July 26, 2009 (7:24 am)

I got home from the parade a little after 11:00. Met up with some friends at the Seattle Center Monorail station about 6:00, or so, and surpisingly found a perfect spot next to the Grecian Corner Restaurant at Fisher Plaza. There was one of those very short wall/high curb thingies that ran along the sidewalk, where my chairless friends were able to sit until the Parade started, and a little nook at the end of the curb, where I was able to set up my chair-in-a-bag, and not block the sidewalk. There was also a TV in the restaurant we could see through the window, to see how the parade had progressed to Westlake.

After getting home, tuned into KIRO 7 news. Usually watch KOMO, but figured 7 would show more coverage of the parade. Was very surprised when they apologized for cutting off the end off the parade, and thus the Pirates. It’s not too uncommon, I don’t believe for the parade to run even just a few minutes long, so one would think they either schedule it for maybe 1/2 hour longer, and figure out something to fill the remaining time, or, join the next program “in progress” as they often do during other TV events that don’t always fit within the scheduled time. Although that would likely annoy those that wanted to see the show following the parade.

Mike

miws July 26, 2009 (9:20 am)

Heh, just thought of something related to my above post.

Maybe Ken Schram should give KIRO 7 a “Schrammie”! Heck, he wouldn’t even have to mail it out, or however he usually sends it. He could just walk it over! ;)

Mike

JanS July 26, 2009 (12:48 pm)

Mike.. the really interesting thing about what the cut away to at 10pm…it was filler…a repeat..nothing important. Saturday night TV is…mostly a wasteland anyway…it really surprised me. How many years have they been doing this? One would hope they learn from past experiences, huh…

WSB July 26, 2009 (12:50 pm)

I remember watching the parade on TV more than a decade ago and getting annoyed at the “ending at 10 but it’s clearly not over.” I suppose I should follow our own site rules and send somebody there a note to ask for their explanation before ranting further. Last night, anyway, there was quite a gap before the Pirates came down the line at the end of the parade – at least where I was, by City Hall.

Jim July 26, 2009 (8:00 pm)

Seafair coverage has been a commodity for sale for many years. I don’t know how much KIRO pays for the rights now a days. The first year it was only like 75K. Prior to that KING made a 15K donation, and covered everything wall to wall including the full scholarship program on a Saturday night. It even had the talent portion of the top ten contestants.

KING made a major commitment to Seafair. When Seafair decided to exercise it rights to the events, and put it out to bid, KING refused to participate in the bidding process. The KIRO contracted coverage easily cut in half the television exposure Seafair was getting from KING.

KING TV then started the Christmas winter wonderland celebration, and has been the driving force behind that ever since.

Arlene July 27, 2009 (9:43 am)

Congratulations to Hi-Yu for another award-winning year with the float. Lots of volunteer time and energy goes into making the float – from idea to design to building/assembly to getting it transported to the parades and set-up. I encourage everyone who enjoys seeing a West Seattle entry in the parades to support Hi-Yu – be a member (sign up at http://www.hiyu.com) and buy a Hi-Yu pin at the street fair and events. (I saw some for sale at Funky Jane’s this weekend!) The Hi-Yu celebration and activities including the float survive on donations from individuals and businesses so please help out where you can.

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