Orcas’ July 4th Parade To Honor Historic Saturday Date

— by Margie Doyle and Lin McNulty —

On March 29, the Orcas Island Chamber of Commerce sent a letter to interested parties, among them the Orcas Lions Club and the Orcas Historical Society, announcing that they had revisited their earlier decision to hold the Chamber of Commerce parade on Monday, July 4, 2016.

The Chamber of Commerce parade will now be held on Saturday, July 2, 2016. That is the same day that the Historical Society will hold its Historical Days Fair on the Village Green, the Orcas Lions will hold their Salmon Barbecue and Orcas Island Volunteer Firefighters/EMT serve their Pancake Breakfast.

Board President Susan Gudgell said in making the announcement, “Years ago the Chamber concluded that the logistics of the parade may work better if it were on the 4th as it is in other communities. It seemed the year that the 4th and the Saturday nearest the 4th (last year) fell on the same day would be a natural time to make a change, so it’s been in the works for years.

“However, upon reflection we realized that it was late in the game to do so this year, when many organizations and individuals may already have their 4th of July plans in place.

“The reason the parade was held on Saturday for a long time appears to be because the Historical Society used to organize and run the parade, in conjunction with the Historical Days celebration. Eventually the Historical Society passed the baton for the parade to the Chamber of Commerce.”

“We will put this out to the membership for broader input for the years to come.”

According to Chamber Director Lance Evans, the feeling among the board, in deciding at first to change the date to Monday, July 4, was that having the parade on Monday would coincide with the fireworks display on Monday evening. The board also felt it might better serve the tourist trade if they could get the “full Independence Day experience” when they come up here, said Evans.

(Editor’s note: this story was originally published on April 11 as “Rumor Control: July 4th Parade To Be Held on Saturday, Just Like Always.” We were informed that the story caused some misunderstanding and so we have rewritten it. )