Sun shines on Magnolia parade and Summerfest

July 30th, 2011 · 19 Comments

Despite some obvious pacing challenges, the Magnolia parade brought smiles to the faces of young and old on a picture perfect day.

The Grand Marshall of the parade was Magnolia’s own Kathi Goertzen, KOMO TV anchor.

The Seattle Police Motorcycle Drill Team made a return to the parade after a long absence and thrilled the crown with precision moves…

Summerfest seemed bigger than ever with lots of new participants…

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Kevin

How on earth did that parade take over 2 hours? Wasn’t it 30 minutes last year? Obvious pacing problems is the understatement of the year…
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Dave

Thanks f0r the great parade! Maybe just pick up the pace next year.
deepconcentration

that ronald mcdonald photo is barely safe for work.

you’ve seen it, you can’t unsee it!

Ronald

Looks like a McWeiner to me.

No Politicians!

I object to “commercializing” the parade. I can give the hardware store & Albertson’s a break, but McDonald’s? What’s their connection to Magnolia?

Also, I vote against Reuyan Carlyle whenever possible, only because he takes advantage of the captured audience at our parade. Parades are supposed to be an escape from daily BS, of which the politicians are lately the chief purveyors of BS …. Keep the politicians and other politics out of the parade.

We need more things like that person dressed as a witch walking by herself – what was that all about?
guest

PLEASE please make the parade shorter next year….have been doing this for over 30 years. 45 mins, the usual time, is perfect. You lost a lot of interest with that 10 mins between participants. AWFUL.
JenM

Very disappointed with how SLOW the parade moved. Come on guys….. this is for the kids, who have small attention spans, and even the parents around us were annoyed with the wait between participants. WAYYYY too slow. I hope whoever is in charge of moving things along will listen to these comments! Next year, I’ll have to pack a picnic basket with lunch and dinner if it moves as this snail’s pace again!
Jaydub77

Slowest, most badly timed parade EVER.
SeattleSlew

Obviously they need help in organizing/running the parade. Instead of complaining why don’t some of you volunteer to help? I seriously doubt there is a large paid staff running it. Probably the same people who volunteer for countless other things in an attempt to make Magnolia a better place to live. It seems odd that so many people have plenty of time to surf the internet and post complaints but can’t find the time to help themselves…

Before complaining, why don’t you ask what you can do to help?
MagNeighbor

Dozens of volunteers (with real jobs and real families) work hard for months prior to the parade out of their appreciation for this community and their desire to be givers, not takers. Didn’t like the parade? Think about how YOU can help the Magnolia Summerfest volunteer team. What sort of sweat equity can you bring to the table? Or would you prefer your ungrateful words to discourage this hard-working team so much that they no longer feel motivated to work on this event? Magnolia doesn’t HAVE to have a parade. The summerfest parade is a privilege, not a right.
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Always a fun time!
Where are your manners?

Crimeny people. It was Saturday. It was a sunny day. It was a parade at a festival day. Who cares if it lasted 2 hours? (well, maybe the people in the parade who had to wait ..) Seriously, if it was too long, leave.

It must be sunshine dementia Summerfest organizers. I think what these negative nellies MEANT to say was THANK YOU for organizing such a fun and successful weekend’s worth of events. And hidden in their feedback I’m sure is an implict willingness to volunteer on the committee next year since they can run it oh.so.much.better.

(crickets…what , they’re not coming forward… now that’s surprising..)

My kids loved the parade and had a smashingly good time at the festival, visiting the booths and especially the inflatables. Thank you to the organizing committee, the sponsors, and all the volunteers who worked to make this such a nice event for our neighborhood
Lissie

I think people would NOT be complaining if it hadn’t taken so long. Perhaps they are using the board as a way to send a message? It’s unusual for it to go so long. The jabs that they volunteer and help are also unhelpful.

MagNeighbor

Wow, Lissie. Shocking that anyone could feel as you expressed you do. There’s only one way to make a difference, and that’s to ACT. It’s perplexing that anyone would believe that sitting around complaining is going to change anyhing.

Where are your manners?

Lissie, I respectfully disagree that it is not helpful to point out the volunteer opportunities to the people who are so eager to complain. If one wants to send a message or provide feedback, how about at least saying thank you to the people who worked hard and volunteered their time to organize it and arrange all the many details of a whole weekend of events (not just a parade)? I’m sure the organizers would appreciate additional hands on board.

Anyone who has spent many hours volunteering for something knows how demoralizing it is to hear so many complaints. Anyone who hasn’t doesn’t know and doesn’t care.

Take a chill pill …

I’ll bet the organizers and volunteers for this event have thicker skin than you give them credit for, “where are your manners”.

I suggest the comments below are credible, constructive criticism (responding to the article, and not necessarily personal attacks) which should be corrected next year.

MagNeighbor and SeattleSlew are wrong, and that’s from someone who has volunteered quite a bit. I don’t think everyone critical of an event should be required to volunteer on the committee; that would be suicide.

Where are your manners?

But it’s still rude (impolite, insensitive…. you pick the better word) no matter how thick skinned folks are. The majority of the “constructively” critical comments don’t express any sort of appreciation. Is that short parade entitlement? I don’t know. It’s not that their point(s) aren’t valid. But if they really are concerned, they should direct a letter to the community center/club expressing their concerns and not lob criticism on a blog posting. Granted that’s just my opinion.

MagNeighbor is right on, the best way to affect change is to act. The whole point is that many (most?) people tend to provide feedback on ways to improve something w/o a willingess to roll up their sleeves and be a part of it. It’s the “what someone needs to do” phenomena. Be the someone.

Bob98199

I must comment on what I felt was a perfect day for a parade! Sunshine and many participants! Add to this that most did not consider, a few of these entries not only got up early to stage for our parade but joined with me in the Torchlite Parade that same evening with a usual standard wait of 2-3 hours before doing the mile a;most 2 mile length parade route making a long day to entertain lots of people! I personally helped organize Magnolia’s Summerfest Parade and know personally first hand, what it takes to put a parade in order and motion! KUDOS to Darrell Drew for over 35 years of non-paid volunteering to organize this parade, one of Seattle’s biggest kid’s parades with even enabling us to get Seafair Pirates and the Seattle Police Motorcyle Drill Team to appear as well! And, always know that you always have the choice to come and go as you wish as a spectator and volunteers stay to the end! CongratulationsMagnolia Summerfest Volunteers for a great job doing what most of us know is a big task! Happy Seafair Everyone!

Bob (Q.A. ’78) of Magnolia