Thank-You Parade sticks to Sellwood and Westmoreland sidewalks

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, August 1, 2012

As the end of the school year approaches, students from Sellwood Middle School parade through the neighborhood.

“For many years, we have done this parade as a fundraiser for our cultural arts program at Sellwood,” said Lael Pinney, a parent volunteer, and the parade’s coordinator.

“In the past, businesses have given us merchandise as incentives for student fundraisers, or they have collected tips from their customers in the two weeks prior to our parade,” Pinney told THE BEE. “This year, we asked our businesses to support us in other ways. So we are just marching to say ‘thank you’.”

A torrential rainstorm drenched the area on May 22 — the scheduled day for the parade. Consequently the parade was postponed a week to May 29, but then the planners discovered they couldn’t take to the streets as in past years, having lost the police escort that was booked for the prior date.

However, the resourceful volunteers and school staff held their event nevertheless, albeit on the sidewalks of Sellwood and Westmoreland, going north along S.E. 13th Avenue to S.E. Bybee Boulevard, and back to the school along S.E. 15th Avenue.

Students held signs, and were serenaded along the way by the middle school’s well-known Marimba Band — which played a sidewalk concert at the Blue Kangaroo coffee shop.

When the procession wound around to Wilhelm’s Portland Memorial, the marching band was still playing — and stepped out with the students, teachers, and volunteers, as they made their way back to the school.

“As you see, our students are holding signs, thanking our neighborhood businesses for all their support throughout the year,” Pinney explained. “We do — so much — appreciate their continuing support of our arts programs.”