A full complement of parade marchers and vehicles followed by all-you-can-eat hot dogs at Grennan Heights Park will comprise another full July 4 celebration in Niles.
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All 2021 participants are returning for the parade, which attracts about 10,000 spectators each year. The 1.5-mile procession will begin at 8:45 a.m. at Notre Dame College Prep, 7655 Dempster. Then it will snake along Ozark to Main, then march onto Harlem, turn onto Monroe and conclude at the park.
“We are happy to announce that the parade this year will have three marching bands and two drill teams,” said Katie Schneider, community engagement coordinator for the Village of Niles. “There was only one marching band in 2021 since most marching band programs had been canceled nationwide.”
Marching will be the Music City Drum Corps, the Blue Stars Drum and Cavaliers Drum and Bugle. Drill groups are New Generation Fancy Drill Team and Southshore Drill Team.
Returnees include Medinah Flying Carpets, Medinah Aviators, Northern Rays Corvette Club, Midwest Chapter Model T Ford club, the Chicago Light Artillery Battery A, the 1st Michigan Engineers and many community organizations.
On another July 4, in 1863, the Union Army defending the Gettysburg was wrapping up its biggest victory of the Civil War to date. Some 159 years later, the blue-clad “federals” are represented by re-enactors in the form of the Michigan Engineers.
Morton Grove’s Chris Mantas, spokesman for the engineers, said the group, drawing from all over the Chicago area, has participated in the Niles parade for 19 years.
User Upload Caption: The Michigan Engineers, re-enactors of a unit of the Union Army in the Civil War, are slated to appear in the Niles July 4 parade.
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“I was first sergeant for years, now I’m back to being a ‘private,'” said Mantas, who explained the group was formed in 1987.
“Over the years we’ve participated in events, ceremonies, school presentations and large re-enactments all over the Midwest and South,” he said. “We also did presentations at the Niles Historical Society, on Milwaukee Avenue, for five years.
“Our unit represents an actual Union Army Engineer unit. We dress, drill, and reenact as infantry. But also carry the tools of an engineering unit: shovels, picks, axes, ropes etc. The 1st Michigan Engineers (1861-1865) fought in the Western Theater, under Gen. (William Tecumseh) Sherman, building bridges, repairing roads and constructing defense works.”
The Engineers wear complete reproductions of wool uniforms, hats, leather accoutrements and packs, while toting vintage re-created muskets.
They and other marchers will no doubt be hungry and thirsty by the time they reach the finish line, where the Post Parade Family Fest will commence about 11 a.m. for a three-hour duration.
Niles Park District Director Tom Elenz said servers will have more than 5,000 hot dogs plus soda pop to distribute at no charge. No word on whether diners will be required to only apply mustard to the wieners. A beer garden will be open at the tennis courts.
Also featured will be a petting zoo, inflatables, carnival games, a face-painter and the Niles Fire Dept. providing a cooling spray, Elenz said. Providing musical entertainment will be The One Night Band.
