This year’s Pine Valley Days parade featured princesses on horseback, clowns on stilts, horse-drawn wagon reenactments, Girl Scouts, Smokey the Bear and a surprise appearance from Santee Mayor John Minto all making their way down Old Highway 80. The sound of bagpipes and drums faded into the clippety-clop of the shoes of the horses of the Victorian Roses followed by the motorbike engines of the Patriot Guard, the sounds of the alumni band of Mt. Miguel and the sirens of the law enforcement vehicles that arrived at the end of July 30. parade
Warming up before the parade with her fellow Cameron Highlanders, Susie Shoemaker said they attend many local parades, but “the Pine Valley parade is one of my favorites because it’s hot and short” and always fun.
Although Pine Valley Days began Friday evening with a barbecue at the county park, families turned out en masse for Saturday morning’s parade, lining the country lane with folding chairs and toddlers in tow. Three-year-old Zaley said she was there to “see the horses” as well as say hi to her sisters who will be riding in the Girl Scouts’ float as brownies, while Zach, 7, grabbed a bag of groceries, “for sweets” that he predicted would be released. of the floats
Sure enough, several parade participants tossed candy into the crowd, though the U.S. Forest Service opted to gently sprinkle water on groups of sweaty children while Smokey the Bear paused at regular intervals to high-five children of all ages.
Mountain Empire Men’s Club secretary Patrick Duggan, a key organizer of the event, said they were really “cater to the kids” this year with bounce houses to replace the usual water slide, but also made sure there was a full night of entertainment planned for Friday. the whole family.
“We had the band going until at least 9:30 at night when I packed up and headed home. I’m sure a lot of people stayed a lot longer. We have deep-dish barbecue dinners for sale, but people can also bring their own food and stay as late as they want, have fun with their families,” Duggan said in his thick, Aussie accent.
This year, he said, “they threw out 120 pounds of chicken that flew like hotcakes,” but otherwise didn’t change anything about the deep barbecue the club puts on every year.
Although they had a slightly lower number of registered vendors than usual, the event added a beer booth with beer kegs for adults and glow sticks for kids, all donated by family-owned McIlhenney Brewing of neighboring Alpine.
However, other than the addition of the beer stand, the event is almost identical to years past, Duggan said.
All proceeds from food and beverage sales, t-shirt purchases, and financial donations go toward the scholarships the Men’s Club awards each year to students in the Mountain Empire District.
Scholarship chairman Tom Barrett stood behind a table with shirts for sale and said the club has funded new shirts, sports balls and community outreach events over the years, but would listen to any request
“We try to make sure that no child is ever turned away; last year we gave away just $20,000 that we raised from this and other fundraisers,” Duggan said.
While the pandemic proved difficult, “kind of tough on local business owners,” Duggan said the club managed to raise funds and stay involved with the community.
“Really, after six years of doing this, I’ve gotten the hang of it and I’d like to do more community events,” Duggan said.
Visit www.pinevalleydays. com to learn more about the Mountain Empire Men’s Club.
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