Lakeside Memorial Day Parade Planned

By Tom Lappas, Henrico Citizen Editor 03.APR.08
Lakeside will celebrate Memorial Day with a two-mile parade through the community – the first organized parade in Lakeside since the 1940s, and the beginning of what event planners hope will become an annual celebration.

The parade will be held on Monday, May 26, and will begin at Hatcher Memorial Church on Dumbarton Road, then travel along Lakeside Avenue to Hilliard Road and end at Lakeside Elementary School on Cottage Street.

Parade organizer Dick McClure hopes to attract 50,000 spectators and 60 or more floats and other parade units.

“It’ll be a celebration of Memorial Day,” McClure said, “and all parade units will be required to contain something red, white and blue. Our goal is just to put on a good parade and for people to enjoy it.”

In an attempt to attract a large number of parade participants, McClure said that organizers will not charge a fee to organizations that wish to march in the parade this year.

McClure, who previously helped organize the annual National Tobacco Festival parade and then its spin-off, the Autumn Harvest Parade, in Richmond, hatched the idea for a new parade late last year after watching the Ukrop’s Christmas Parade. He and Patrice Carroll, who was involved with the Christmas Parade, initially considered a St. Patrick’s Day Parade along West Broad Street in the county, but later reconsidered after Brookland District Supervisor Dick Glover suggested holding an event in Lakeside instead.

The idea won support from the Lakeside Business Association, of which McClure is a past president, and the event was born. Many Lakeside businesses businesses will stay open on the holiday to provide shopping opportunities for the parade spectators. McClure hopes that the event will help draw some people who haven’t visited Lakeside in the years since a revitalization project spruced up Lakeside Avenue and its business corridor.

Organizations interested in marching in the parade, or people who would like to volunteer to assist with the planning and organization of the event, should call McClure at 266-6808 or 399-1531.