Managing Editor PAPA, the committee that organizes the town’s Fourth of July parade and the fireworks show at Palisades High School, is busy on two fronts this spring. First, the group is lining up floats, marching bands, celebrity participants, Pups on Parade, Kids on Bikes and other entries for a one-mile parade that travels from Bowdoin and Via de la Paz up to Sunset, down to Drummond and back on Toyopa to Alma Real. Second, members of the Palisades Americanism Parade Association are spreading the word and making pleas for increased donations from the community to defray this year’s working budget: a record $80,000. Absent a large corporate sponsor, the all-volunteer PAPA committee is forced to basically start from scratch every year to fund the parade and the fireworks show. The group’s ‘rainy-day’ fund has been drained down to $18,000 in recent years, thanks largely to the loss of Occidental’s annual $10,000 donation towards the fireworks show, and fixed expenses that keep grinding upward. These expenses include fees for participating bands (about $10,000 last year); rental of grandstands, traffic barricades and toilets ($9,000); printing and mailing of 10,000 solicitation letters ($5,400); security ($2,700); insurance; sound systems; the pre-parade VIP luncheon; trophies; the skydiving team that opens the parade; and Pageantry Productions, the professional parade organizers from Long Beach ($10,000). In addition, the crowd-pleasing fireworks show by Pyro Spectaculars by Souza now costs $19,000. And there’s no admission fee. ”We obviously love to get big donations’such as $5,000 from the Junior Women’s Club,’ said PAPA President Rob Weber, ‘but we also need more grassroots supports from residents who enjoy the parade and the fireworks year after year. ‘We’re in trouble financially if we can’t at least break even this year,’ Weber continued, ‘but there’s a solution: more people responding to our solicitation letter with larger donations than in previous years. Just another $10 or $25 from a thousand people would give us a cushion.’ Tax-deductible donations can be sent to: PAPA, P.O. Box 1776, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272. The checks should be made out to the Palisades Americanism Parade Association. ************************* Meanwhile, entry forms are available for individuals, businesses, clubs, youth groups, organizations, churches and synagogues that wish to enter the parade. Applications are available at the Chamber of Commerce office, 15330 Antioch, and must be returned by May 30. Parade orders and staging information will be sent to accepted entries 10 days prior to the parade. As per tradition, there is no entry fee for non-commercial, nonprofit organizations, and they can apply for reimbursement of up to $500 in float expenses (excluding vehicle rental) from PAPA, the organizing committee. Float judging will be based on execution of theme, originality of design and spectator appeal. ‘We’d love to have more homemade floats by families and organizations in the Palisades,’ Weber said.
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