TweetNote: The Palisadian-Post Web site only displays a select number of articles from our weekly publication. We are the only newspaper offering complete advertising coverage of the important, high-income communities of the Pacific Palisades area, from Sunset Mesa and the Highlands to Santa Monica Canyon and Mandeville Canyon. For more in-depth coverage, including local government, business, schools, sports, arts, lifestyle, opinion and much more, see our print edition. Click here to subscribe! Thousands of Pacific Palisades residents and out-of-town visitors will embrace the town’s traditional Fourth of July festivities on Wednesday. The action begins at 8:15 a.m. with the 35th annual Palisades-Will Rogers 5/10K Run, starting at the entrance to the Recreation Center and involving over 2,500 runners. The half-mile Kids’ Fun Run (12-and-under) will follow at 9:15 along Alma Real. At 2 p.m., the Carey Peck skydiving team is scheduled to land at the intersection of Sunset and Swarthmore, heralding the start of the Palisades Americanism Parade at Bowdoin and Via de la Paz. (Peck warned the PAPA committee this week that his regular plane at Santa Monica Airport is out of commission, but he is optimistic he can come up with a second plane.) As the parade proceeds along Via, Sunset and Toyopa, watch for ‘Leave It To Beaver’ actor Jerry Mathers, who will be riding as the grand marshal. Close behind will parade marshal Gerry Blanck, a longtime Palisadian and martial arts teacher. Various community leaders and honorees will be riding in the parade, along with government representatives that include Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, State Senator Fran Pavley, County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, L.A. City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, Councilman Bill Rosendahl and Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom. As the largest Fourth of July parade in L.A. County, the PAPA parade will again feature numerous marching bands and musical groups (10 in all), including the Third Marine Aircraft Wing Band from Miramar, the Oom PaPa Band, the Palisades High marching band, the Long Beach Junior Concert Band, the Santa Ana Winds Youth Band and the Banda Tropical Rafael Pratdesaba of Guatemala. This lively 62-member band confirmed its participation by e-mail during a PAPA meeting Monday night. The parade will also have five equestrian entries and eight floats, representing the USS Nevada, the Pacific Palisades Baseball Association, the Riviera Masonic Lodge, the YMCA/Rotary Club, Theatre Palisades, Chabad of Pacific Palisades, the Woman’s Club and Radcliffe Avenue (back for a second year). Also watch for Parade Review Officer Major General Andrew W. O’Donnell’ the Patriotic Pups’Kids on Bikes’ a convertible carrying two L.A. Lakers (shooting guard Andrew Goudelock and point guard Darius Morris, who attended Windward School)’the Palisadian-Post’s Citizen of the Year, George Wolfberg’and a $600,000 Rolls-Royce convertible provided by Tim O’Hara at Beverly Hills Rolls-Royce and filled with employees from Steve’s restaurant on Swathmore. They are sandwiched between Brownie Troop #12825 and Palisades Optimist Club’s famous Semi-Precision Drill Team, marching in their underwear. Wednesday evening at 6:30, the stadium at Palisades High will come alive with the fourth annual pre-fireworks concert, Palisades Rocks the 4th, featuring the PaliHi concert band, the acoustic duo of Donovan Lyman and Randy Coleman, and rock star Dave Wakeling and his band, The English Beat. The musical entertainment will end at 9 p.m., followed by Rich Wilken’s traditional salute to veterans in the audience, and then the 20-minute, $21,000 fireworks show, presented by Pyro Spectaculars By Souza. Please refer to the official parade program in this week’s issue for all the details of these Fourth of July events.
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