July 3 parade theme: ‘Heart of America’

Published 9:04 am Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Theme Votes

“Heart of America” 69

“American Film History” 67

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“Reduce, Reuse and Recycle” 65

(public submission)

“A World of Wonders” 21

“Holidays Around the World” 14

“Go Green” 10

(public submission)

“Red, White and Blue Zone” 8

(public submission)

“A Time to be Proud” 6

(public submission)

The Albert Lea-Freeborn County Chamber of Commerce announced Monday that the theme for this year’s Third of July Parade will be “Heart of America,” as voted in a recent online chamber survey.

Chamber Operations Manager Tami Riecke thanked the people who helped pick the theme and said she thinks the public input will make the parade even more of a community event.

This is the first year the chamber sought input about the theme for the parade. In years past, the chamber’s parade committee came up with the theme, which parade participants then used to decorate their floats accordingly.

This year, the committee wanted to find out how to help the community have a more vested interest in the parade, so it came up with the idea of letting the community help pick the theme.

The chamber suggested four themes, including “American Film History,” “Heart of America,” “Holidays Around the World” and “A World of Wonders,” and people could go online and pick their favorites. People could also suggest their own themes.

Coming in right behind the winning theme were the themes of “American Film History” and “Reduce, Reuse and Recycle,” which was a public submission.

Now that the theme is official, participants in the parade can begin brainstorming for their floats.

Float applications will be mailed out to last year’s participants, and they will also be available on the chamber Web site, Riecke said.

The application deadline is at 5 p.m. June 11.

Riecke said she hopes to get between 120 and 130 floats for the parade. Last year, there were 128.