<p data-src=

The start of 2018's Volusia County Veterans Day parade in Downtown DeLand.

BEACON PHOTOS/MARSHA MCLAUGHLIN

" title="The start of 2018's Volusia County Veterans Day parade in Downtown DeLand.BEACON PHOTOS/MARSHA MCLAUGHLIN"/>
The start of 2018's Volusia County Veterans Day parade in Downtown DeLand. BEACON PHOTOS/MARSHA MCLAUGHLIN

While many people are looking forward to and trying to get through Thanksgiving and the Christmas-New Year’s period, at least one Deltona official is already looking ahead to next summer.

As the City Commission was wrapping up its Nov. 15 regular meeting, Commissioner Dana McCool abruptly announced her brainstorm for a new tradition.

“I would like to put in a request for a Fourth of July parade down Deltona Boulevard,” McCool told her colleagues and the audience.

Later, McCool expanded on her idea.

“It’s just kind of all-American. There are cities all around us that have July Fourth parades,” she told The Beacon.

“I would like bands, the veterans groups, the businesses. It would look like small-town America,” McCool added.

Her vision of a July Fourth parade is a procession that would follow the route of Deltona’s Christmas parade, with the units marshaling at the intersection of Deltona Boulevard and Enterprise Road, then marching eastward along what was originally Deltona’s main gateway, and ending just east of Deltona Plaza. The parade, she insists, would be on Independence Day, regardless of the day of the week upon which it falls.

Unlike the city’s Christmas parade — a night procession — McCool wants the July Fourth parade to be a daytime event that would be a warmup for the now-annual celebration and fireworks at Dewey O. Boster Sports Complex.

Mayor Heidi Herzberg said McCool’s idea will probably be discussed in a future workshop, or informal meeting, of the City Commission. Herzberg acknowledged one concern about a midsummer daytime parade — perhaps lasting an hour or more — is the possibility of significant numbers of paradegoers requiring emergency medical treatment for heat exhaustion.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here