BY ASHLEY LODATO
According to anecdotal evidence, the ’49ers Day parade in Winthrop was the best-attended ever. At least, that’s how it seemed to those participating in the parade.
I had planned to drop my kids off at the Methow Cycle & Sport staging area and then become a spectator as they rode through the parade on their bikes. But when it became apparent to entry organizer Julie Muyllaert that most of the 30 or so kids’ parents planned to do this, she requested a little help in wrangling this little group of cyclists through the parade route.
So I got to be in a parade – the first time I’ve done so since high school – and learned that, like riding a bike, the elbow-elbow-wrist-wrist-wrist wave comes right back to you. (Even if I was in marching band and never learned the princess wave in the first place.)
The parade kicked off a nice Mother’s Day weekend, and many moms chose to spend their special day watching the final performance of Alice in Wonderland at the Merc. Accompanied by a soundtrack of classic 1960s tunes, the show just makes you want to get up and dance. And that is precisely what 3-year-old Sisu Clark did every time the music started. Watching Sisu boogie in the aisles was almost as much fun as watching what was happening on stage.
Last Tuesday was apparently National Run a Mile Day and the elementary school observed this day by having the entire school, from principal Brian Patrick to the youngest kindergartener, run a mile around the Classroom in Bloom garden and on the high school track. What can beat the sweaty fun of 300 people – most of whom are under the age of 12 – doing laps on the track in 90-degree heat?
More sweaty fun is in the works as graduating senior and fundraising running star Taylor Woodruff (who over the past five years has run more than 500 miles and raised more than $10,000 for Little Star Montessori School’s scholarship fund) passes the baton to 10-year-old Little Star alumnus Travis Grialou.
The original plan was for the boys to complete the handoff at Little Star’s upcoming auction (May 18, get your tickets quick!) but then the fourth-grade Math is Cool team advanced to the Masters competition, so Travis will be adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing this weekend instead. Perfect training for adding up the numbers of scholarship dollars.
Travis will take up the torch and start running for Little Star this year, so get ready for a phone call.
Marc Robertson took a big fall over the weekend – 18,000 feet, to be precise. Be sure to ask him about it. Hint: it involved an airplane and a parachute.
