West Hartford Park Road Parade

11th Annual Park Road Parade to be held Saturday, October 3, 2009 The 11th annual Park Road Parade, set for Saturday, October 3, will be bigger and better than last year, according to parade organizer Richard Patrissi.  The parade steps off at 10:30 AM, at Ringgold Street and ends at South Quaker Lane. Over 100 contingents and nearly one thousand people are expected to march in this year's parade.  The parade features 12 bands, clowns, a stilt walker, dancers, floats, antique cars and 2009 Ferrari's, dogs of all shapes and sizes, sports mascots, and police and fire color guards and vehicles, businesses, civic and cultural organizations and town officials. "The Park Road Parade is a true representation of all that is good in West Hartford," Mr. Patrissi said. This zany and wildly popular parade draws over 7,000 people each year from West Hartford and beyond to Park Road neighborhood. A parade would not be complete without music. The 2009 Park Road Parade will feature the Colchester Continental Fife & Drum, Colonel John Chester Fire and Drum Corps., Conard High 9th Graders & Sedgwick Middle School 8th Graders combined band, Connecticut Patriots Ancient Fife & Drum, Hartford Magnet Middle School's Marching Phoenix Band, Heartbeat Dixieland Jazz Band, Rob the Drummer, Sphinx Shriner Band, University of Hartford's Steel Drum Band, Washington Park Junior Drum Corps, and the Windsor Fife & Drum. Awards are given each year to the most unique float, best neighborhood group and best car. A parade of this magnitude involves a lot of volunteers and hundreds of hours of planning.  A big "thank you" goes out to all of them. The genesis of the parade started in 1998 as a celebration to a two-year road reconstruction and beautification project which bonded both businesses and residents of the area.  The project spanned Prospect Avenue to South Quaker Lane and included a new pavement, streetlights, and sidewalks.  The theme then and now is to celebrate the neighborhood: its diversity of people, businesses and culture. Bring the whole family to this wonderful celebration of West Hartford.  For more information, please call Richard Patrissi at 233-2447 or Renée McCue at 561-7521.