Tomorrow's Holiday Parade a winner Tomorrow's Holiday Parade a winner (December 05, 2003)

by Jeb Bing

W eather permitting, the Foothill High School marching band will step off at Ray and Main streets promptly at 5:30 p.m. tomorrow to start the annual Hometown Holiday Parade, one of Pleasanton's largest and most festive downtown events. Thanks to the event's co-chairs Brian Dutchover and Amy Peterson and the on-site command of Parade Chair Janet Vader, the Holiday Parade has become the best planned and best run event of its kind in Pleasanton.

This year, a record 25,000 spectators are expected to watch the hour-long parade that will be followed by the community tree lighting ceremony in front of the Museum On Main Street. Along with the thousands of parents and children lining Main Street sidewalks, hundreds more will participate in the parade. These will include Scouting organizations, elementary schools, horseback riders from local riding clubs, floats and bands. With Foothill at the lead, Amador Valley High's marching band is scheduled midway through the parade (they rotate their parade positions each year) with Santa Claus riding atop a city fire truck at the end.

Although there have been Christmas parades in Pleasanton for more than 30 years, the regularly scheduled event that we now call Hometown Holiday Parade got its start at 10 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 14, 1991. Sponsored by the Pleasanton Downtown Association, it was short but fun, with mostly Scouts and other children's groups parading down Main Street while their parents cheered them on from the sidewalks. Some may remember that the early '90s were recession years that were far more severe for Pleasanton than the recent ones, with housing prices tumbling and some businesses closing. The PDA hoped that parents turning out for the Christmas parade would stay downtown to shop. In 1993, the parade was moved to 4:30 p.m. on the Thursday after Thanksgiving, a schedule it followed through 1997.

Then in 1998, the city of Pleasanton joined with the PDA as a co-sponsor of the holiday event, moving both the parade and the tree lighting event to early Saturday evening and, to be politically correct, renaming the Christmas event to Hometown Holiday Parade. The new schedule allowed commuting parents to join in the celebration, with the thousands of spectators who had been attending growing quickly to 10,000, 15,000 and well over 20,000 last year. The number of groups participating in the parade also climbed, with more than 60 organizations registered for tomorrow's event. These include the famed Balloon Platoon, which has marched in the parade for the last 12 years, and other favorites like the colorful, lighted floats created by Meadowlark Dairy and Alden Lane Nursery. Even the Scouts have shed their uniforms. They now parade down Main Street dressed as elves, Christmas packages and tree ornaments and in other seasonal costumes. Through the creative suggestions of the 12-member parade committee, neighborhood groups, organizations and businesses will be adding more lighted floats this year, including a flatbed trailer with huge wrapped Christmas packages and five to 10 children waving from each package.

Two years ago, for the first time, the parade was canceled because of rain. This year, long-time parade announcer Ed Kinney has added Channel 5 Weathercaster Roberta Gonzales to his team. As co-announcer, he hopes she can wave off the rain, although he admits it's chancy. Three years ago, after she had forecast only a slim chance of showers that evening, the skies opened up in a torrent just as Gonzales and her KPIX-TV convertible passed the reviewing stand. The lightning storm was so fierce that the parade quickly ended and the tree lighting was cancelled.

Readers can call a Hometown Holiday Celebration hotline tomorrow to check on the parade if it rains again. The parade committee will give its go or no-go by 2 p.m. at 931-5352.

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