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player ready...Darien’s Fourth of July Parade celebrating the city’s 50th birthday featured 72 floats, cars and groups marching down Cass Avenue, 71st Street and Clarendon Hills Road.
Eisenhower Junior High School’s marching band was near the front of the parade, which also included Hinsdale South High School’s band and its Hornet cheerleaders.
The Chicago Bears Drumline, drumming away as the members rode on a float, drew applause from the spectators, as did the Flat 43 BMX trick bike riders.
Darien Mayor Joseph Marchese rode in a Chitty Chitty Bang Bang-like vintage racing car, the Filipino American Association of South DuPage County had a float and the Windy Corvette Club drove their own wheels.
“I had no idea it was this big,” said Krista Zajac, a seven year resident of Darien, who with her husband, Slade, and 3-year-old daughter, Everly, saw the parade for the first time. “It’s really cute.”
Many groups, such as Girl Scout troops from Cass School District 66, threw candy to the spectators.
That’s one of the reasons 14-year-old Sam Blough of Boy Scout Troop 101 enjoyed marching in the parade, which is sponsored by the Darien Lions Club.
“I like it because we get to throw candy at the children and see their wonderful smiles,” Blough said.
The weather, a sunny 80 degrees and climbing, was beautiful and one of the better parade days in recent memory, said Lions Club member and parade lineup chairman Eric Edlund.
It felt a bit warm and the route long for Eddie Koch, 10, who carried and played the bass drum in the Eisenhower marching band. But he enjoyed it all the same, said his mother.
“He will definitely be tired,” she said.
“It’s all about everyone in our club doing something to keep the parade organized,” Edlund said.
The 160 members in the Lions Club include residents of Clarendon Hills, Western Springs, La Grange and Downers Grove, as well as Darien.