Well, the Fourth of July turned out a wonderful day for a parade and April Sound’s residents came out in force to either participate or watch and cheer. As 8:30 a.m. approached, Civic Association Board members and volunteers had everything set up and ready for the celebration, the decorated golf carts started to arrive down the Boulevard to registration, and the convertibles and other vehicles who had promised to drive an honored veteran started lining up around the Clubhouse circle. Shortly before 10:00, 62 decorated golf carts were circled on Reserve F, the judges had completed their choices, winners were announced, April Sound’s own Sam Siemonsma sang a beautiful rendition of the Star- Spangled Banner, and it was time for the parade to begin. Our April Sound Security led off with the fire truck right behind, followed by our honored Grand Marshal Betty Britt driven by Johnny Kopecky.
This year we had 14 convertibles, classic cars and trucks participating. The veterans in convertibles were in order of their wars and there was appropriate signage on all the cars. Jerry and Karen Hines drove Dave and Marie Underdown representing the Sons of the Revolution. (We figured that was the first of the wars!) We were honored to have Robert Putnam riding again this year, in Dick Belger’s convertible. Robert is a WWII Navy veteran who just celebrated his 105th birthday! His daughter, Jean Chancy lives here in the neighborhood, and he lived with her for awhile. Then came the Korean War veterans, Keith Lucke driving Glen Willis, Jay Holland and wife Sharon in his own convertible, and Jay’s daughter from Brenham driving Paul Knapp. Then, the Vietnam veterans followed: John Ricci driving Mike Venable, Fritz Shumaker driving Garry Plotkin and Benny Pitzer, Carrie Vigliotti driving Randy Devine, and Nathan Arrazate, who heard we needed more drivers and was kind enough to volunteer, driving Richard Gilchrist and Bob Harmon. Then came our grandson, John Paul Blakely driving Underdown’s convertible with Ben Diaz, a veteran of Afghanistan/Iraq. We were very proud to have all those veterans joining us this year!
The winners of the golf cart decorating included first place, Brook Mitchell with a cart decorated like an F-16 Top Gun plane. Second place went to Chris Koehn with a giant inflatable Lady Liberty atop her patriotically decorated cart. Third place winners were Melanie and Al Wright with a giant Thank You Veterans flag on the front and many flags attached all over. The Wrights were selected as the People’s Choice winners and their pup Addie Bell, won first place for pets. Second was Lucy owned by Jenny. Third was Julie Pospisil’s Bella. The non-cart winner was Jackson Payne on his scooter with a poster thanking our service men and women. It seemed that a record number of residents came out to cheer as the parade passed by. The Civic Association thanks all those who helped in any way to make the 2023 parade such a great success for our residents!
– Ann Marie Ricci
Send April Sound news to jamricci@consolidated.net.
