Over 50 parade entries were featured in this year’s Fourth of July Parade in Northbrook on the newer parade route from Cherry Lane to Cedar Lane.
The Northbrook Fourth of July Committee, which includes staff from the Village of Northbrook and the Northbrook Park District, hosted this year’s 4 p.m. parade. Fireworks continued the celebration at dusk.
This is the 11th year the agencies collaborated on July 4 holiday festivities.
The day also included the park district’s 16th annual Liberty Loop and Lap, a 5K run and walk event, plus the Liberty Lap Fun Run for youth that morning along Techny Prairie Park and Fields and Meadowhill Park.
The parade Grand Marshal this year was the Northbrook Civic Foundation. According to http://northbrookcivic.com/, the organization began in 1907 as the Shermerville Improvement Club and became the Northbrook Civic Foundation in 1925.
Civic raises funds for scholarships and community grants and the foundation’s primary fundraiser is the five-day Northbrook Days Festival which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. The festival runs July 31 to Aug. 4 in the west commuter lot of the downtown Northbrook train station. See https://northbrookdays.com/.
To be honored, “It feels great, a lot of years of recognition for the organization and giving back to the community,” said Steve Amberg, Civic’s vice president and interim president.
Matt Settler of Buffalo Grove, Northbrook Days Festival co-chair, said, “This is amazing.
“It’s awesome to be grand marshals,” Settler said, for the Civic Foundation being acknowledged for, “100 years of Northbrook Days this year, so exciting.”
U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider (D-10th) attended five July 4 parades, including in Northbrook, and also the Highland Park Independence Day 1 p.m. parade which returned with a new route after the shooting in Highland Park on July 4, 2022.
Schneider said while walking on Cedar Lane, “Here in Northbrook it’s a great tradition, people on all sides of the streets gathered, celebrating America’s independence, but also celebrating the great community of Northbrook.”
Ron Bernardi, community service representative of Sunset Foods, returned to drive an antique vehicle.
“Celebrate, celebrate, celebrate the Fourth of July,” Bernardi said with a smile.
Siblings Brooke Semel of Glencoe, of the Glenbrook North High School (GBN) Class of 1998, and Danny Sternfield of Northbrook of the 1993 GBN class, were parade spectators on a sunny Thursday afternoon at 82 degrees.
“I have great memories of Fourth of July,” said Semel, who marched in the parade as a teen member of a poms cheer squad.
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“Northbrook was a great place to grow up,” Semel added. “Great community, friendly people, and always really great community celebrations like this.”
Sternfield held son Ari, 20 months, on the Cherry Lane parade route. Sternfield chose Northbrook to raise the family.
“I enjoyed the way we grew up so I figured it’s just a great place to live and raise a family,” Sternfield said.
The GBN football team returned as parade participants and Matt Purdy of Glenview, GBN head varsity football coach said, “I think it’s important to be a part of this, it’s a special time for the Northbrook community.
“It’s a great opportunity for our kids to be out in front of their friends and their community members,” Purdy said. “Northbrook is an amazing community.”
Oliver Youngberg, 3, of Northbrook was seen on the Cedar Lane parade route holding a small American flag in each hand.
Oliver’s parent Deanna Youngberg said it was important to bring Oliver because “It’s to celebrate Northbrook and the Fourth of July and community.
“Northbrook is a great place to live because of the people, the community,” Deanna Youngberg said of being a Northbrook neighbor. “We’re a great bunch of people here.”
Sue Hall Sieber of Northbrook, of the Evanston Township High School (ETHS) Class of 1979, and her husband Chris Sieber of the ETHS Class of 1972 moved from Evanston to Northbrook in 1995.
Of the parade, “It’s hometown, I wouldn’t miss it for everything,” Sieber said.
To parade organizers at the Village of Northbrook and the Northbrook Park District, “Thank you so much for planning this and putting it out for us and sticking with community,” Sieber said. “Community is everything.”
Karie Angell Luc is a freelancer for Pioneer Press.