Back to Focus

Tacoma honors you

City hosts parade to salute the troops

Military units and supporters will march on Tacoma next week. /U.S. Army photo

Email Article Print Article Share on Facebook Share on Reddit Share on StumbleUpon

This month, a tradition is being revived in downtown Tacoma and everyone is invited to come and take part. On August 24, the City of Tacoma and the Daffodil Festival will partner to host the inaugural ‘Celebrating Military Service Parade'.

Historically, downtown Tacoma has hosted Armed Forces Day parades but in recent decades, there have not been any military-affiliated parades.

"We anticipated that this would be a 2014 project originally, but it just came together for this year, which was great," said Steve James, executive director of the Daffodil Festival. "There hasn't been a military parade in Pierce County in over 50 years. We saw it as a chance to inspire the next generation of heroes."

The Daffodil Festival, a 501(c)(3) organization, is currently marking its 80th year in operation and, given that they host multiple parades throughout the season, the mayor of Tacoma thought they were best suited to coordinate the parade.

"I was speaking with Steve {James} and we were talking about the desire to do a downtown evening parade in Tacoma when the weather is nice," explained Mayor Marilyn Strickland. "Joint Base Lewis-McChord is such a big part of our local community and we realized this would be a great way to honor the active-duty from JBLM and all of the veterans living in the area."

In fact, recent numbers cite a population of over 100,000 associated with JBLM and the base is the largest employer in all of Pierce County. According to the Daffodil Festival's media release, the event was purposely not scheduled around a holiday or homecoming, but rather on a special August evening just to honor those currently serving or who have served in the military.

Tacoma will provide public safety manpower during the parade and the Daffodil Festival has handled the rest of the work, from arranging sponsorships, like Emerald Queen Hotel & Casino and Puget Sound Energy, to recruiting participants.

Currently, the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Air Force Reserves, Army National Guard, Navy Reserves, Washington Air National Guard, Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion have all entered into the parade.

The event will also feature floats from Madigan Army Medical Center, local police departments, high school bands, drill teams, ROTC and JROTC units, a collection of historical vehicles and military vehicles, as well as the Patriot Guard Riders and the Royal Canadian Regiment.

"This parade is also a way to encourage people to come down to downtown Tacoma and visit if they haven't been in awhile," Strickland stated.

The festivities will kick off at 5 p.m. in Tollefson Plaza, on S. 17th and Pacific Ave., with a performance by the 56th Army Band. Then, at 6 p.m., the parade will start out down Pacific Avenue and head throughout downtown.

"We really wanted to make it possible for everyone to get into Tacoma that night for the parade," James stated.

Luckily, Sound Transit stepped forward to offer support and will be running public transportation, specifically for the evening parade, from Lakewood up to Tacoma. Rides will be free for military, dependents and veterans as long as they show proper ID.

The train will leave Lakewood at 3 p.m. and then return from the Tacoma Dome stop at 8:30 p.m. Additionally, the Lakewood station, located at 11424 Pacific Highway SW, conveniently has 600 parking spaces for transit users.

"I really hope it becomes an annual event," said Strickland. "We'll regroup after the parade and see what worked well - for both the participants and spectators - and then go from there."

"Tacoma is the largest city close to JBLM, so it makes sense to do this again and make it a regular occurrence in our community," she added.

Read next close

Stage

Visual Edge: New artists at Matter

comments powered by Disqus