Organizers foresee bigger community in 'Unity' parade

By: CHRIS BAGLEY - Staff Writer | Thursday, November 15, 2007 11:10 PM PST ∞

LAKE ELSINORE ---- One hundred or more groups are expected to march or roll through town Saturday morning for the Unity in the Community Parade, an increasingly popular event that has established itself over the course of its first 10 years.

The 11th annual parade is scheduled to launch eastward on Graham Avenue from Elsinore Middle School at 10 a.m. and loop back on Heald Avenue, as it has in recent years. Organizers said the event has gained traction, with participants often coming back in following years to help organize their groups.

"The kids are getting more involved in it as the parade gets bigger and bigger," said Maui Tatola, a maintenance worker at William Collier Elementary School who has led the school's students in building floats for most of the parade's history. The students won the prize for the parade's best float last year.

Tatola said school faculty and staff will get down to the nuts and bolts of the float at 6 a.m. today, followed by students at 8 a.m. The last-day construction minimizes the time the huge floats stay exposed to the weather outside, Tatola said.

Students of all grades will line the first "story" of the float with fourth- and fifth-grade student council members up top.

"Celebrating leadership, past and present" is the parade's theme this year.

Organizer Jeanie Corral said she chose the leadership theme to recognize Elsinore's 120 years of cityhood and the possibility that the neighboring community of Wildomar might become a city with its own municipal leaders next year. Corral is a board member for the Lake Elsinore Unified School District ---- which encompasses Lake Elsinore, Wildomar, Canyon Lake and the southern outskirts of Corona.

"Everything that has been done in our valley, in our nation and in our world as a whole has been accomplished by people who were willing to serve," Corral said.

Corral said residents put together the first parade to build community spirit and eliminate griping that the Lake Elsinore area was short on celebrations and other marquis events.

Jessica Sherman, who represents her fourth-grade class in the student government at Collier, said she's looking forward to helping out today after watching the school's float last year from the sidelines.

"It was really, really pretty," she said.

Organizers said 102 groups, ranging from businesses to Boy Scout troops to schools to elected officials and their staffs, had signed up to participate in the mile-long parade. Corral said she expected as many as 10,000 people to descend on downtown Lake Elsinore.

Putting aside a blip in 2001, when terrorist attacks on the East Coast triggered a wave of community spirit and patriotism and some 150 participating groups, participation has grown steadily, from about 40 in the first parade to 98 last year, Corral said.

Others can sign up by 5 p.m. today if they can get their act together quickly. Floats aren't mandatory, organizer Kathye Aniol said, but Aniol said she encourages groups to pick up on the leadership theme.

The city is getting in on the action again, too. Other sponsors include the Lake Elsinore Valley Chamber of Commerce, the Knights of Columbus, the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District and Near-Cal, a Lake Elsinore-based construction company, Corral said.

Contact staff writer Chris Bagley at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2615, or cbagley@californian.com. Comment at www.californian.com.

Unity in the Community Parade

- Where: Staging area at Elsinore Middle School; parade heads down Graham Avenue, turns left on Main Street and returns on Heald Avenue.

- When: Participating groups check in from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. Saturday; parade begins at 10 a.m.

- Who: 102 groups are expected to participate.

- Why: Organizer Jeanie Corral said residents put together the first parade to build community spirit and eliminate griping that the Lake Elsinore area was short on celebrations and other marquis events.

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