The annual Fourth of July Parade is tomorrow, and Exchange Club of Lake Highlands organizers are expecting a large number of participants.
Early days of the Fourth of July parade
A neighborhood tradition going back to the 1960s, the parade brings various area organizations, City of Dallas departments and neighborhood youth together for a procession down Church Road. As of Thursday, the EXLH expects at least 1,000 parade participants and 38 floats/vehicles, Citizenship/Americanism Director Raymond Morrow told the Advocate.
Participants will begin organizing in the North Highlands Bible Church parking lot around 8 a.m. The parade will begin at 9 a.m and has an expected runtime of approximately one hour before all participants make their way to the Wildcat-Ram Stadium parking lot.
This year, the parade will be led by Grand Marshall Mary Kellagher, who is retiring after 12 years as principal of Northlake Elementary. She was part of the well-publicized “Let’s Back Northlake” push in the 2010s.
“We’re obviously very proud of our schools and that academic product that we put out as a community, and yeah, the students and the high school get a ton of recognition for that,” Morrow said. “But also in the last however many years, it takes the elementary schools and middle schools feeding those students out to them that are prepared to succeed. And when Mary took over Northlake, it was kind of struggling in a lot of ways, and she’s kind of turned it around and made it into a great school.”
The parade will feature many returning organizations including the Highlandettes, Lake Highlands’ military moms, Dallas Fire-Rescue, the LHHS Band and Cheerleaders.
Some neighbors may remember seeing an individual powering down Church Road in a full-body blowup bald eagle suit on a motorized one-wheel skateboard last year. Unfortunately, the skating eagle has decided to take a vacation this Fourth of July, Morrow said.
After the parade concludes, a carnival will be held in Lake Highlands North Park. There will be pop-ups by local organizations, DPD squad cars for children to inspect, snow cones, bounce houses, a DJ and face painters. The carnival runs from 10 a.m. to noon.
“Come on out and enjoy yourself,” Morrow said. “It’s not too late to enter your children into riding your scooters or bikes or walking in the children’s parade.”
