Parade of Bands fills Hazel Dell with music, fun, families

Hazel Dell
Parade of Bands winners

o Grand Marshal Award: Glenwood Place Senior Living.

o Equestrian: Trophy award, Vancouver Rodeo with Queen Felicia; first place, El Tapatio; second place, Clark County Fair Court.

o Noncommercial division: Trophy award, Clark Regional Wastewater District; first place, Lifeline Connections, second place, Clark County Goats 4-H; third place, City of La Center.

o Commercial division: Trophy award, Columbia Bank; first place, People’s Community Credit Union; second place, Clearwater Springs Assisted Living and third place, U.S. Bank.

o Classic cars: Trophy award, Rose City Classics; first place, Mustangs Unlimited and second place, Nellie’s Food Cart.

o Specialty vehicles: Trophy award, Fort Vancouver Antique Equipment Association.

To Watch

View the Hazel Dell Parade of Bands several times on Clark/Vancouver Television at CVTV.org.

Families lined the streets of Hazel Dell on Saturday to partake in an annual tradition: the Hazel Dell Parade of Bands. This year’s theme, the “Wild, Wild West,” was rendered with hay bales, cowboy hats and cowboy boots galore.

Garry Lucas, retired Clark County sheriff, rode in a red Cadillac Eldorado with pearl-handled pistol door handles and cattle horns mounted on the enormous grille.

Clark County Mounted Search and Rescue wore white cowboy hats.

Miss Vancouver Rodeo Felicia Harrison, 19, rode Bingo, her 20-year-old quarter horse.

Wearing tan cowboy hats, the Hazel Dell Parade Alumni Band played the parade perennial, “Louie, Louie.”

The Discovery Middle School band played “Rawhide” as it marched.

Alejandra Bolanos, 14, a Discovery clarinet player, wore blue bands on her braces to match her blue-and-white Wildcats uniform.

The parade is organized by volunteers from the Hazel Dell/Salmon Creek Business Association. In the first parade in 1964, eight school bands marched. In Saturday’s parade, 27 bands from Gresham, Ore., to Moses Lake marched. In all, there were 140 parade entries.

Most of the bands were home-grown high school and middle school bands hailing from throughout Clark County. The Jason Lee Middle School Panthers played “Hooked on a Feeling.” Laurin Middle School played “I Don’t Get No Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones.

Candy being tossed was a big draw for the children lining the sidewalks. Players from several Hazel Dell Little League teams rode in trailers, waved and tossed candy.

Landon Loy and Owen Chevalier, both 10-year-olds from Benjamin Franklin Elementary School, had drawn a colorful chalk mural on the street that read: “Candy” with an arrow pointing toward where they waited for their loot. The chalk mural added the sentiment: “We’re not sharing.”

Another boy in a blue 12th Man cape swooped in to pick up more candy.

Gracie Moss, 5, focused on filling a pink Hello Kitty bag with candy. Her brother, Noah Moss, 7, did his best with a Chuck E. Cheese bag. The parade was a family affair for the kids, grandparents Rick and Marilyn Gilbert, and parents, Justin and Samantha Moss, who said she’s attended the parade since she was her daughter’s age.

Down the street, Tiffany Claflin, 26, sat on the curb with her children, Robert Claflin, 8, and Scarlet Fedde, 4. Tiffany Claflin marched in the parade as a student at Frontier Middle School and Heritage High School. Before that, she attended the parade with her grandmother.

“My grandma lived by Safeway, and we went every year,” Claflin said.

Leading her pygora goat, Adam, Alise Leonard, 11 asked a group of children on the sidewalk, “Do you guys want to pet him?”

The human kids surrounded the goat kid, bred for long, curly fleece.

Then the Pleasant Valley Middle School student tucked her goat under her arm and scurried to catch up with her 4-H group.

With lights flashing and sirens blaring, fire trucks slowly drove along Hazel Dell Avenue. Firefighters carrying tall rubber boots fanned into the crowd asking for donations for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Residents from Glenwood Place Senior Living had watched the parade from chairs on the sidewalk. But as the last parade entry, the Ridgefield High School Spudders band, passed, the seniors stood up, collected their things and boarded their bus.

“Great parade! Loved it!” said one senior woman as she took one last look at the parade.