Arlee Independence Day parade hits highway
Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local.
You are now reading
1 of 3 free articles.
ARLEE — This Fourth of July, Arlee displayed the true meaning of a community celebration as volunteers banded together to bring back a longstanding tradition of parading down U.S. Highway 93.
“(The parade) was always on the highway, for 30 or 40 years,” parade committee member Tina Morin said.
That changed five or six years ago when the Montana Department of Transportation restricted the parade to the back roads of Arlee, Tina said. Each year, community members tried to get permission to take their celebration back on the highway, but to no avail. Last year, in the midst of U.S. Highway 93 construction that made the town nearly impossible to navigate and left residents driving on four-wheel-drive trails in place of roads for weeks, community members defied the mandate to keep the parade off the highway in an act of celebratory civil disobedience.
“It worked out OK,” Tina said.
But this year, Tina’s brother Tim, another parade committee member, took up the issue with MDT and the Lake County Road and Bridge Department and learned that to hold the parade on the highway, Arlee would need to produce around $400 to rent signs, traffic barrels and barricades and 10 volunteers to flag and monitor traffic. It took 10 volunteers seven hours on Saturday night to set up the markers and barricades, Tina noted.
“This is a big thing for our community,” she said.
“(The volunteers) really worked hard to get that (parade) route through town,” community member Aileen Meyer added.
Thanks to the Morins and others who chipped in their time and efforts, Sunday’s parade, themed, “Free to be … through courage and sacrifice!” was a huge success, Tina said.
“We were trying to think of something to indicate the meaning of the Fourth of July … (the theme) also could indicate our freedom to be who we want to be,” Alvaretta Morin said of the committee’s choice of theme.
The Mission Valley Honor Guard led the patriotic procession, a colorful mixture of entries from intricately detailed floats to riders on horseback, from Arlee High School to the south side of town and back up the northbound lanes of U.S. Highway 93. Grand Marshals were longtime Arlee residents Vic Charlo, a descendant of Chief Charlo, and Sophie Haynes, who was unable to attend the parade.
“We try to honor someone (as Grand Marshal) that’s been in the community for quite a while,” Alvaretta said.
Local businesses donated trophies and prizes for the winners in each contest category, and parade judges were Penny Nord, Jerry Shepard and Sydney Schall Powell.
Results
Commercial
1st, Tribal Health “Buckle Up for Safety”
2nd, Orange Acres
Clubs and Organizations
1st, Engine 57
Indian Outfit — Group
1st, Shane Hendrickson
Indian Outfit — Adult
1st, Ron Hunter family
Western Outfit — Group
1st, John and Liz Sykes
2nd, Ernie Otoupalik
Western Outfit — Adult
1st, Taylor Bolin
2nd, Myrna Bertollt
Western Outfit — Youth
1st, Cayden and Patrick Big Sam
2nd Kori McVicker
Novelty/Humorous — Youth
1st, Free to Be Scooter Chicks (Carney family)
2nd, Kai Stein and Milan Farm Equipment
Novelty/Humorous — Small Child
1st, Savannah Bertollt
Novelty/Humorous — Group
1st, O’Neil, Marks and Smith families
2nd, Shealee Petrei
Patriotic
1st, Morin and Morin-Ferguson families
Float Prize
O’Neil, Marks and Smith families
Judges’ Mention
Dennis Black
Honorable Mention
Orange Acres
Best Use of Theme
Morin and Morin-Ferguson families
Grand Prize
Sykes family
