Marching bands, drill teams, miniature horses, beauty queens and politicians will entertain spectators along Garnet Avenue between Haines and Cass streets with their floats, musical skills and vintage cars for the annual Pacific Beach Holiday Parade Saturday, Dec. 9, from noon to 3 p.m.
Along with his usual parade announcer duties, Pacific Beach’s Honorary Mayor Karl Jaedtke will also lead the parade.
“It will be kind of funny to see me just kind of running jumping out of my vehicle and going, ‘Okay, enough of that, now on to business,'” Jaedtke said.
Other parade participants will include appearances by San Diego police officers and lifeguards, along with other community sports, church and civic groups.
Of course, Santa Claus will also be hand to wave and greet new and old friends.
“My thinking is this: If you want the community to support you, you’ve got to support the community,” Jaedtke said. “Which means that you have to invest some time and energy back to the community.”
To make sure the parade maintains the level of community involvement, especially after the funding dried up after the PB Block Party was cancelled, organizers work hard to encourage groups to enter floats while working hard as raising the money to make sure this year’s parade rolled on.
“I think people will see plenty of familiar faces in the parade and familiar entries,” said Todd Brown, owner of Bub’s Dive Bar, and member of the Hospitality Task Force, which raised the necessary money for the event. “They’re also going to see some new stuff, which is really going to be neat.”
Some new additions to the parade are the Anheuser-Busch Clydesdales and the SeaWorld Animal Recovery Vehicle.
Another new aspect of this year’s parade is the holiday Toy Drive benefiting Big Animals for Little Kids, an all-volunteer organization in San Diego.
“We’re an all-volunteer group that cheers up kids in need who are in hospitals, shelters and institutions by visiting them in our big animals costumes. It’s a real joy and a lot of fun,” said Jerry Hall, a volunteer for the organization.
The task force is working in conjunction with the PB Town Council, Big Animals for Little Kids and Silvergate Elementary in Point Loma on this Toy Drive. Parade-goers are asked to bring an unwrapped toy for children ages 5-12. Collection boxes will be set up along the parade route and Santa’s Toy Sleigh to collect gifts.
Gifts collected during the parade, and elsewhere, along with handmade gifts made by students at Silvergate Elementary, will be given to kids at Central Elementary School in Escondido by the Big Animals and the kids from Silvergate Elementary, right before Christmas.
“Most kids at Central Elementary School are economically disadvantaged, so we’re all trying to give them a merry Christmas,” Hall said.
According to Brown, the task force hopes that funding for the parade will exceed the actual cost so that the task force can donate the excess to charity or use toward improvements to the community.
“What the ultimate goal is to not only have it self-sufficient in terms of funds, but maybe if there is money left over to pick a community project that we could accomplish,” he said. “We’re excited, we really want to see it grow and become something that the community has been so proud of the parade in years past and we’d like to take that and move it forward even more.”
The holiday celebration continues into the night with the 35th annual Mission Bay Christmas Boat Parade of Lights, which leaves the channel west of Quivira Basin at 7 p.m. and runs along the west side of Mission Bay and will end at the South Ingraham Street Bridge at approximately 9 p.m. and is followed by SeaWorld lighting of its Sky Tower Tree of Lights.
Organizers recommend Ski Beach on East Vacation Isle, Crown Point Drive and the west side of Fiesta Island as the best viewing spots.
For more information on the Mission Bay Christmas Boat Parade of Lights call the Mission Bay Yacht Club at (858) 488-0501.
For parade information visit the Discover Pacific Beach Web site, www.pacificbeach.org.