Get Out Your Red, White and Blue!
It’s finally here. The month of July – bringing with it concerts, picnics, warm nights, ripe tomatoes from the garden and the 4th of July!
Given the political turmoil in our own country and the atrocities visited upon the Ukraine and its courageous people, it’s especially important to celebrate Independence Day this year and rejoice in our many freedoms. Our theme, Keep On Truckin’, celebrates our students and teachers and their perseverance during the challenging times presented by the pandemic.
The Orinda Association (OA) would like to help Orindans do just that with the annual 4th of July Parade and concert. The OA has been putting on this “hometown parade” since 1985 with help from the City of Orinda and a plethora of enthusiastic volunteers.
As co-chairs of the 4th of July, Marianne Moser and myself can’t thank people enough for their generous donations of time and money to make the parade a reality. Now, having done our first year of co-chairing the event, we are in awe of Bill Waterman and Diane Lautz, who co-chaired for four years!
A special thank you to Cindy Powell, who has spent countless hours getting donations and keeping track of the budget (not to mention keeping Sally from spinning out of control!) with Chris Laszcz-Davis responsible for all the beautiful pole banners around town.
For pancake lovers everywhere, we thank the Lamorinda Sunrise Rotary for bringing back the pancake breakfast, and we’re also grateful to Meghan Frey for organizing the Fun Run to work off those pancakes and donate to a worthy cause.
Thank you doesn’t begin to say how we feel about Andy Radlow, who is doing the heavy lifting organizing the actual parade and all the entrants, and we thank Jackie Buettner for all the great music, both in the parade and at the concert in the park afterwards.
Steve Harwood, Scott Butler and Bill Cosden will once again be the familiar and fun voices of Orinda as they announce the various parade entrants, and Anil Comelo is working hard behind the scenes to make everything run safely.
The incredibly clever Lisa Burlini has kept our website up-to-date and also designed our colorful posters. These are just a few of the volunteers who have been working for months to make sure Orinda has a wonderful 4th of July celebration.
A complete schedule of events can be found on Page 11, with the many volunteers and donors, who make the event possible, listed as well. We look forward to celebrating with you on July 4th!
Sally Hogarty can be reached at sally@theorindanews.com. Marianne Moser can be reached at Marianne.moser@gmail.com.
