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Neighborhood report

Golf carts will roll on parade once again

The event will return for Fourth of July and may be followed by a picnic and live music.

By SAUNDRA AMRHEIN
Published February 10, 2006

	[Times photo: Thomas M. Goethe ]
	Golf carts proceed down American Eagle Blvd. during Sun City Center's annual golf cart parade in 2004.

The golf cart parade will roll through the streets of Sun City Center once again.

This time, instead of an end-of-the-year holiday event, the Sun City Center/Kings Point Golf Cart Parade will usher in Fourth of July celebrations.

"Every town on the Fourth of July has a parade," said resident Dick Marshall, who's organizing the event. "We don't have high school (marching) bands. . . . But we do have golf carts that people can decorate."

Sun City Center hasn't seen a parade for a year, since the last one in December 2004. The previous organizer could no longer do it.

"People kept saying to me, "How come we don't have a parade? Why isn't there a parade?' " Marshall said.

"I started talking to people and thought, "You know, we really need a parade in this town.' "

Marshall, a dispatcher with the Sun City Center Emergency Squad and active in his temple and the local radio club, decided to take the lead.

"If you want something done, you ask a busy person," Marshall said.

He found a small group of people who offered to help.

The next question was when to have it.

The Memorial Day events at Kings Point honoring war dead was considered too solemn.

Also, the golf carts would have had to cross State Road 674, which the local sheriff's deputy advised against because of the need to stop traffic.

"Someone said, "How about the Fourth of July?' " he said.

They envision the parade ending at a bandstand, a picnic with a hotdog roast, music and prizes.

"A good old-fashioned good time," he said.

That's the idea. Now he needs volunteers - and sponsors - to help make it happen.

Marshall said he wants the parade to be a leisurely event, without schedules that force drivers to put the pedal to the metal as in past parades.

Also, he said, the point is to have fun - not set world records.

In 2003, the parade drew crowds in the thousands and 306 golf carts - enough to break the community's own Guinness record for the title of World's Longest Golf Cart Parade.

The next year, it looked like the event would not happen, the first time in six years without a golf cart parade.

But at the last minute, officials at Freedom Plaza independent and assisted living community stepped in to arrange the parade in December 2004. It attracted 39 carts.

That year, Marshall and Beth Israel, the Jewish congregation of Sun City Center, won the top prize, Best Overall cart.

Marshall said he and the volunteers have many details to complete about the next parade in July.

But for now, it seems, the parade is back.

- Saundra Amrhein can be reached at 661-2441 or amrhein@sptimes.com

To offer to help, call Dick Marshall at 633-3338. Or you can e-mail him at 2006golfcartparade@rmarshal.net - that's right, just one "l" in Marshall in the address.

[Last modified February 9, 2006, 09:10:11]