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Neighborhood news
MLK Parade will foster fellowship
By JONATHAN MILTON
Published January 12, 2007
Local high school marching bands, organizations and community members will line the streets near downtown Tampa on Monday for a parade to pay homage to an American icon. The Martin Luther King Jr. Parade will play as a festive stage where hundreds can come to reflect and celebrate the legacy of a dream come true. This year's parade, which follows the trend of past parades, will also give the local community an opportunity to join together afterward at Pepin-Rood Stadium. The stadium will be a gathering site where parade attendants are invited to come and enjoy food, fun and live entertainment. In addition, there will be a battle of the bands, where the audience will judge six high school bands from Tampa and other Florida cities. Parade committee head Monique DeVage, a Hillsborough County sheriff's deputy, will make sure everything runs as planned. "We have people from all types of city entities, and it's very interesting because everyone has something different to bring to the table," DeVage said. One example is the presence of the city's solid waste department. Before King was assassinated, he was on his way to help in a strike involving sanitation workers. "I enjoy it. It's a lot of work. It has been an experience for me because as a deputy, we don't usually do these sort of things," DeVage said. Although this is DeVage's first year heading up the parade, she already has plans to make it bigger. "The committee is already discussing 2008. My goal is to make us the premier parade for Central Florida. I can see this going leaps and bounds above what it is now." This year's parade, which starts at noon, will begin at Blake High School, 1701 N Boulevard, move south on N Boulevard to Main Street, west to Willow Avenue, south to Cypress Street and east to N Boulevard, ending at Pepin-Rood Stadium. Jonathan Milton can be reached at 813 226-3374 or milton@sptimes.com.
[Last modified January 11, 2007, 08:22:52]
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