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Parade prompts spirit of community
The streets of Northville will be a
sea of red, white and blue on July 4
when the annual Independence Day
Parade marches through downtown to
delight the crowd of about 20,000 or so.
“Every year, it just seems to grow
and get larger and larger,” said Shari
Peters, president of the Northville
Community Foundation which organ-
izes and manages the parade each
year as a volunteer effort. This is the
15th year the foundation has taken on
the task.
Peters said that real heroes of the
event are the volunteers and the com-
mittee members who work a full-year
on the event. Each of the events, like
the vintage cars or the floats or bands,
is led by a volunteer who helps organ-
ize that specific segment of the parade.
This year, the theme chosen by the
Parade Committee is America,
Yesterday, Today and Forever, and
Peters said she expects to see it depict-
ed on several floats and with
marchers. The parade will officially
begin on the dot of 10 a.m. when the
long line of marchers leaves the stag-
ing area at the foot of Griswold and
Main Street. The parade will travel up
to Main Street, from Main to Rogers
Street, fromRogers to Cady, fromCady
to Wing and from Wing Street to
Fairbrook.
Peters said that as usual, there will
be plenty of music, several larger
floats, marching bands, clowns, chil-
dren's characters, vintage and classic
cars, the very popular bike parade,
sponsored by Meijer and Hunter
Orthodontics and the pet parade.
“There will be so much more,” she
said, “that's just a hint of what you'll
see.”
Festivities will begin with the Ward
Church Choir singing the National
Anthem while the Color Guard stands
at attention. Radio personality Lisa
Barry and Dr. Bill Demray will be the
official emcees of the parade again
this year.
This year, the parade will also fea-
ture several children's characters
including Paws from the Detroit
Tigers, Shooter from the Whalers, and
several surprise visitors. As has
become a tradition, the Northville
High School marching band and the
Plymouth Fife and Drum Corps will
march alongwithmany others.
“This is a real community event
and every year I'm just amazed at what
a terrific sense of real America this
parade displays,” Peters said. “I keep
thinking it can't get better, and every
year, it does.”