Community Corner

Your Guide to Brandon's 'Pioneering Families' Fourth of July Parade

What you need to know for the 2012 Greater Brandon Fourth of July Parade, whose theme this year is "Brandon's Pioneering Families."

 

The Greater Brandon Fourth of July Parade kicks off 10 a.m. at the corner of Lumsden Road and Parsons Avenue, with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office and its colorguard, followed by a collection of military related groups, as is the tradition for this homegrown, historic affair.

Next up in the parade protocol are featured guests, which this year include the parade’s chairwoman, Marie Cain; the person who will be named honorary mayor of Brandon; and this year’s grand marshal, Jeremy Rosado, the local singer who made it to the Top 13 round of the latest season of "American Idol."

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Last year's grand marshal, Col. Lenny J. Richoux, commander of both the MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa and the 6th Air Mobility Wing, will be at the parade, to say goodbye.

"The folks at MacDill requested that he have an opportunity to say goodbye to the area," said Janine Nickerson, vice president of the Community Roundtable, which each year organizes the parade and the race for honorary mayor of Brandon. "He's going to Belgium and his replacement will be here by the end of July."

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HONORARY MAYOR OF BRANDON

  • The honorary mayor’s race will be determined at 8 a.m., when receipts raised in the charity campaign will be counted. The persons replacing the current mayor, Cami Gibertini, will either be B. Lee Elam or Gay Lynn Love.
  • Lee's sponsoring charities are the GFWC Brandon Service League and the Rotary Club of Brandon. Love's sponsor is the Brandon Family YMCA. Lee's designated charities are the Bill Carey Unit Boys & Girls Club of Brandon, which Elam helped found; the GFWC Brandon Service League Scholarship Fund; and the Emergency Care Help Organization (ECHO). Love's designated charities are the Juvenile Diabetes Reasearch Foundation and the YMCA.
  • Traditionally, receipts for the race are counted the morning of the Fourth of July parade at Elam's law offices, which sit at the corner of the start of the event. But this year, since Lee's a "candidate," receipts will be counted at O'Brien's Irish Pub and Family Restaurant, at 701 West Lumsden Road.

GREATER BRANDON 4th OF JULY PARADE FEATURES

  • The parade is presented each year by the Community Roundtable, an umbrella organization for area charities. The group also runs the honorary mayor campaign and awards the Father of the Year, Nonprofit of the Year and Alice B. Tompkins Community Service awards. Also, the Maureen Krzanowski scholarship winner, an award named posthumously for a former president, and long-active member, of the Community Roundtable.
  • This year’s parade theme recognizes the "Pioneering Families of Brandon," for which representation will include Mike Brandon, the great grandson of town founder John Brandon; Helen Mulrennan Young, whose family is the namesake for Mulrennan Middle School in the Greater Brandon community of Valrico; and Judy Darcy, whose family is the King family, for whom Kings Avenue is named.
  • This year’s Father of the Year is Christopher Coleman, whose daughter, Christina, penned the winning easy that led to his honorarium. In all, some 300 essays were submitted by area students.
  • This year’s Alice B. Tompkins Community Service Award recipient is Tammy Holmberg, a past honorary mayor of Brandon and proprietor of the Chick-fil-A restaurant in Lake Brandon Village. Holmberg this year received as well the 2011 Key Citizen of the Year Award, from the Greater Brandon Chamber of Commerce. She is the first Brandonite to receive both prestigious town awards in the same year.
  • This year's Nonprofit of the Year is A Kid's Place.
  • The Maureen Krzanowski Scholarship winner is Emily Almand.
  • Politicians and civic volunteers, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, ball players and cheerleaders, dance groups and krewes, businesses and performers are among the many offerings on view in what essentially is a live, moving billboard of town life.
  • Members of the Bloomingdale and Brandon high school marching bands will, as is the tradition, perform together this year.

PARADE ROUTE

  • The route itself travels through those many things that make a town a home, including, for Brandon, the South Brandon Little League fields, All Persons Playground, Brandon Regional Library, Brandon Regional Hospitals, Center Place Fine Arts & Civic Association and lots of small businesses, some dating back 50 years or more. (See, )

PARADE STARTS

  • Parade starts 10 a.m. at the corner of Lumsden Road and Parsons Avenue. It runs north on Parsons, then west on Robertson, crossing Kings Avenue for a final rest at the Publix-anchored shopping center just west of Buckingham Place.

SUNSCREEN, WATER AND FOOD

  • “Definitely bring sunscreen, definitely bring some fluids, and this year we will have food trucks along the parade route,” Nickerson said. These are approved vendors, who signed up in advance, and any vendor not able to show proper identification will be asked to leave by sheriff’s deputies.

TRAFFIC

  • East and westbound traffic along Lumsden Road, between Kings and Parsons avenues, will be shut down from 7:30 a.m. until the parade’s conclusion, to allow for the parade’s staging. From Parsons Avenue north to Robertson Street, then east across Kings Avenue and to the Publix-anchored shopping center, will be closed starting at 9:30 a.m. The parade typically runs for about two hours.

STAGING

  • This year's 34 floats and 110 units are expected to line up along Lumsden Road, heading west from Parsons Avenue (which south of Lumsden Road is John Moore Road). Parade participants are expected to start lining up at 7 a.m. and must be in place by 9:30 a.m.

REVIEWING STAND

  • The reviewing stand for the contest judges is in front of Nature’s Health Foods at 401 South Parsons Ave., which shares space in a strip center with the Copper Bell Cafe, where breakfast will be served starting at 7 a.m. Boxed lunches will be on sale as well.

GRAND STAND

  • This year, for the first time, a VIP viewing stand will be set up near the judges, for representatives of the parade's sponsors. Also on hand this year will be past honorary mayors of Brandon and representatives of Brandon's pioneering families.

JUDGES

  • This year’s parade judges are Jim Johnson, of Mosaic; Tony DelCastillo, of the St. Petersburg Times Brandon/South Shore edition; and Stormy Brown, of Coca-Cola.

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