The Whittier Daily News reports that the annual Route 66 Parade in Duarte, Calif., is in danger of being canceled because of a lack of volunteers.
At a Wednesday meeting to fill 18 parade committee chairmanships, only 10 people signed up, including for the two top posts of parade chairman and treasurer.
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Jim Kirchner, the former parade chairman, said that if there are no more volunteers, the parade’s coordinating committee will decide Feb. 27 if there will be an 11th annual parade and car show Sept. 16, to mark the 80th anniversary of Route 66’s opening.
“I’ll report to the coordinating committee on the success of this meeting,” he said. “They may decide to put it on the shelf for a year.”
That wouldn’t be a totally bad thing, Kirchner said, because next year will be Duarte’s 50th birthday, and it would give them more time to plan the city’s golden anniversary celebration.
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“We’re at a serious crossroad,” he added. “Attendance is down, too. The 2004 parade had more people in it than people watching it. It’s embarrassing to see those large gaps in the crowd.”
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If the parade is canceled, it will mark the end of a 10-year tradition, the nation’s only annual parade to honor the highway that made possible America’s 20th-century mass migration to the West Coast.
To parade or not to parade. Now there’s a question. I hope they are able to have it.