WEST SEATTLE GRAND PARADE: The 2019 winners!

(Photo courtesy Michelle Edwards)

Those are some of the hard-working volunteers who make the West Seattle Grand Parade happen – the judges! They’ve sent the awards list from today’s parade, and we’re adding video/photos we took along the way:

On behalf of Barbara Edwards (above center) and the West Seattle Grand Parade Judges, here is the list of winners from today’s parade:

OVERALL GRAND PRIZE WINNERS:

1st Place: Seattle Schools All City Marching Band

2nd Place: Sumner High School Spartan Marching Band:

3rd Place: Seafair Pirates

Marching Bands:

1st Place – Seattle Schools All-City Marching Band:

2nd Place – Sumner High School Spartan Marching Band:

Tie for 3rd Place:
Rainbow City Marching Band and Spinout:

Kennedy Catholic High School Marching Band:

Performing Acts:

1st Place: Seafair Pirates:

2nd Place: Pathfinder K-8 School Unicycle Team:

3rd Place: Joyas Mestizas – Seattle Mexican Folk Dance Youth:

Cars & Motorcycles:

1st Place: West Seattle Amateur Radio Club:

2nd Place: 1942 American LaFrance Fire Truck

3rd Place: Camp Crockett Dog Day Camp:

Commercial:

1st Place: Counterforce Taekwando:

2nd Place: O’Neill Plumbing:

3rd Place: Luna Park Café:

Community:

1st Place: Hope Lutheran School:

2nd Place: West Seattle Bengals Youth Football & Cheer

3rd Place: WA State Sons of the American Revolution

Drill Teams Jr & Cheer Squads:

1st Place: Butterfly Electronettes Drill Team:

Tied for 2nd Place:
West City Rope Ninjas & Ropeworks:

Washington Diamonds Drill Team Jr.

Drill Teams Sr.:

1st Place: Washington Diamonds Drill Team & Drums:

2nd Place: Electronettes Drill Team & Drum Squad

3rd Place: West Seattle High School Cheer:

Floats:

1st Place: Holy Rosary School:

2nd Place: West Seattle Lions Club:

3rd Place: Skunkworks Robotics:

We’ll continue to add video and/or photos of the winners listed above, and we have other parade galleries in the works too.

21 Replies to "WEST SEATTLE GRAND PARADE: The 2019 winners!"

  • SillyGoose July 20, 2019 (7:05 pm)

    Vancouver motorcycle police should have taken 1st place. They’ve been dedicated to this community for years. We are the only “parade” they enter in Washington State. Show some appreciation.Bring back the floats!!!!

    • M July 20, 2019 (7:22 pm)

      Vancouver and Seattle PD are VIP guests and are not judged.

  • Barbara July 20, 2019 (7:25 pm)

    Yes we appreciate the Seattle and Vancouver B.C. Police motorcycle drill teams. We are honoured that Seattle Police motorcycle drill team often choose West Seattle Parade for retirement ceremonies.Both police motorcycle drill teams request that they not be part of the judging process.

    • Beth July 21, 2019 (8:19 am)

      We also love the motorcycle drill teams!  We saw both Seattle and Vancouver officers stop near Charlestown and hug a person who cane out from the crowd.  Who was that person?

      • Jim July 21, 2019 (9:32 pm)

        My understanding was it was another retirement. I did not catch the name this year. I was tied up with issues elsewhere on the parade route.

  • Out for a Walj. July 20, 2019 (8:46 pm)

    It was a wonderful parade. If you missed it do attend next year!  

  • Barb July 20, 2019 (10:05 pm)

    The parade was enjoyable and I know a lot work goes into making this happen but I am wondering were that beautiful floats were? Seems a lot of advertising groups, no one from Seafair was there. 

    • WSB July 20, 2019 (11:54 pm)

      Yes, there was Seafair representation as always! The Commodores (boat float plus Miss Seafair 2015 dancing), the Pirates, the Clowns were all parade entries. Seafair also has people who help with the parade. The only change for them is that the Seafair Scholarship Program for Women has changed dramatically so there are no longer princesses in convertibles. The floats that you might have noticed were not there were the casino-sponsored Strawberry Festival and Daffodil Festival floats, with those festivals’ “royalty.” As warned here, that’s something else we lost with the community’s failure to sustain Hi-Yu – floats’ appearances were in reciprocity, with Hi-Yu appearing in other parades and other festivals sending their floats here. – TR

  • West Seattleite July 21, 2019 (1:11 pm)

    Overall, after having attended Hi-Yu parades in excess of 50 years running, this was by far the most disappointing.  I am not criticizing those who participated, but more the lack of participants (and/or variety of participants).  Floats were hugely missed, for whatever reason is given.  Their colors and creativeness.  We just needed something more than advertising, canvassing, etc…  Those are ok, but not nearly as kid excitable.  It just fell terribly flat, and will probably elect to miss it next year (for the first time ever…)

  • carole July 21, 2019 (2:04 pm)

    No Keystone Cops, no antique firetrucks.  I miss some of the zanier things of past years: dancing bagels, PCC precision (grocery cart) drill team, the burly guys dressed as blue angels. Heck, even Ronald McDonald was a no show! Let’s see if we can get some locals to bring back some of the silliness next year.

    • WSB July 21, 2019 (2:07 pm)

      Just for the record, there were two antique fire trucks. One of them is even in the winners’ list above. (I didn’t include a photo because, I’ll confess, I don’t know which one the honoree was.)

      • Jim July 21, 2019 (3:15 pm)

        The American LaFrance was the honoree. Not the Kenworth, which was a long sought after truck, recently acquired and is undergoing restoration. Since Last Resort Fire Department doesn’t hardly bring their trucks out of the garage anymore, It is nice to have a local resident filling that niche.

      • West Seattleite July 22, 2019 (1:43 pm)

        It seems that the “winners” list incorporates anyone who participated, not just the exceptional ones.  My opinion.  There were so so many “winners’ listed.  It was just a totally disappointing event.

        • WSB July 22, 2019 (2:28 pm)

          No, actually, there were 75 entries, hundreds of people. Five marching bands, which is pretty cool IMO (and for others who enjoy them, don’t forget Band Jam at SWAC this Friday night, see our calendar). Re: floats, last year there were two of the type to which you refer. Looking back 11 years to the running order for the 2008 parade, that one had three (Hi-Yu plus the two that were here last year, Strawberry and Daffodil festivals). It really hasn’t been that dramatic of a change over the years. If you are only interested in floats, the Seafair Torchlight Parade is what you want to see, although I haven’t been in a few years, since Hi-Yu’s shutdown also meant there was no WS-related reason for me to cover it. so I am only speculating it still has multiple floats. The fact we even HAVE a parade, still, is rather amazing given the fact that it’s put on by a small group of volunteers and that the Rotary Club took over the presenting role a few years back. It takes a ton of money and time – just the road closures alone. I am sorry I clearly have not done a good job over the years of explaining the herculean task it takes to make this happen. – TR

          • Maria July 22, 2019 (7:03 pm)

            The recent Torchlight parades have had floats from Poulsbo, Marysville, Tacoma, Canada (Penticton) and  from other surrounding county festivals.  That’s pretty cool if you think about guests from all around.  I always thought it must’ve been expensive having some of them for West Seattle (which Poulsbo did for years.)It’ll be interesting for me to see if the Keystone Kops, Chinese Drill Team, etc., show up at Greenwood or Lake City – the other similar neighborhood parades.  They were noticeably absent.

  • SillyGoose July 21, 2019 (2:17 pm)

    Thats a relief.  Is there any chance the Hi-Yu could be brought back to life?  Who would one contact about this feat?  

    • Jim July 21, 2019 (3:33 pm)

      One could restart a festival float… but it is a ton of work. It is not necessarily a guarantee of reciprocal float participation either. Seafair elbowed their way into the date that had traditionally been  West Seattle’s Parade day for the previous 65 years. Once that happened float participation started to wane as festivals had contractual commitments to be elsewhere. It is now a 7 year cycle of the calendar that from time to time opens the door for float participation. All Seafair festival events in Seattle are tied to  the Blue Angels schedule.

  • Anne July 21, 2019 (5:35 pm)

    Does anyone know if the street islands on California Ave at Hinds would have an impact on what size float could pass there? 

    • Jim July 21, 2019 (9:28 pm)

      Maximum float width is 16 feet and it fits by those escape islands just fine. Ground clearance on a float must be at least 8 inches. Before they put signs on top of the islands, I use to drive the Hi-Yu float with the wheels on the yellow line (I could see the pavement from inside the float) and would overhang the island by 4 feet. I use to keep the ground clearance up closer to 10 inches just for that reason.

  • Maria July 22, 2019 (12:55 pm)

    I have to say that the Sumner HS Band participation this year kept me from feeling  more disappointed like many of the other comments.  Their addition as well as some of the  fresh grassroot “floats” (yay Holy Rosary Legos) and local active kids (yay Ropeworks and Pathfinder) certainly doesn’t make up for the  missing professional floats, but at least kept us entertained.  It is a luxury to have high school bands like Sumner and Kennedy because school is not in session.  All-City Band is a summer SPS program.  Can you imagine these neighborhood parades without the bands?

    • West Seattleite July 22, 2019 (1:44 pm)

      Without them, it wouldn’t have been a parade.  But rather people out for a walk down the street.  Hugely disappointing this year.

Sorry, comment time is over.