57th Annual Greenwood Seafair Parade

Last night was the parade. Sarah and I emceed for the third time since being in Seattle. It was fun the first year but now we just do it for the money. It could be a lot of the fun but the disorganization of our part of it is frustrating. The cards are never in order when we get there, the "script" is full of typos and terrible grammar, and the descriptions of each participant are way too long. I've offered my help in the past to make things flow better but I haven't been taken up on it. I'd love to get the script ahead of time so as to fix typos and rewrite portions that are repetitive or just badly written. But, alas, I probably won't get the opportunity because we were told there may not be a parade next year. In fact, we were told that there almost wasn't one this year. I think it has to do with the decreasing attendance. I spoke to someone today who pointed out the fact that the event really doesn't benefit the local businesses. Good point. I would have to say that looking around at the folks in the crowd I don't see too many people that look like they live in the neighborhood so if it's for the community and the community isn't coming, why continue?
The theme this year was "Going Green in Greenwood." Some of the participants had "green" themed entries but not too terribly many. One telling thing about this parade was left in the aftermath. There was trash everywhere. Way to go green there folks. I heard a similar argument for the Live Earth concerts. Are they really helping the environment or hurting it? I've been to concerts. People lay waste to the environment. And think of the power involved. It just doesn't compute. It's kind of like that time I saw some folks picketing McDonald's for using styrofoam containers but most of the the picketers were smoking. There's something not right with that picture. But, then again, I'm not surprised. The world is full of ignorant hypocrites.
So, if there's no parade next year, we'll miss the money but not the parade itself. I think the only people who will miss it will be the drill team participants. Those little girls are so competitive it's scary.