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Aurora celebration to include ‘spectacular’ surprises

This year’s Fourth of July parade in Aurora is a bit of a comeback story.

The parade didn’t take a year off, but funding for it initially was removed from the city’s budget. From Jan. 1 until late February, it seemed Aurora would have a fireworks show, but no Independence Day parade.

Then a local veterans group, Aurora-Roosevelt American Legion Post 84, stepped in to sponsor the parade.

“This is the Fourth of July. It’s our independence, and I think we need to have an Independence Day parade, even if it’s just a small, little two-car parade, we need to celebrate that,” said Norris “Doc” Erickson, the post’s commander.

The parade will be plenty more than two cars driving down a blocked-off street, said Alderman Stephanie Kifowit, a Post 84 member who helped plan the event. It will feature about 80 entries, ranging from the disabled American veterans to Waubonsie Valley High School’s steel drum band. A Vietnam War-era helicopter from the Aurora Air Classics Museum pulled on a trailer will be the parade’s largest entry.

Parade organizers are keeping a few other entries secret, saying they will be “special” surprises.

“We’re putting in some spectacular things — things that people will talk about for the next year — because we plan on doing this every year,” Kifowit said. “Some of the other things we’re looking at doing really, truly make the experience special, and that’s what we want to do.”

American Legion Post 84 raised more than $15,000 for the procession and the city provided $15,000 in matching funds.

The parade’s grand marshal is the Aurora Police Department’s senior chaplain, Jerome “Father Jerry” Leake, pastor at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church.

Leake was injured in a car crash in late December while riding along with an Aurora officer. He suffered a broken pelvis, several broken ribs and a concussion, but finished his rehabilitation sessions in April, then went back to joining second-shift police officers on their patrols.

“He’s been a very respected and a very busy person within our community,” Erickson said.

Leake said he’s honored to be chosen as grand marshal.

“I was out last night in a squad car practicing waving at people, so I think I’ve got that down,” he joked at an Aurora City Council meeting in late June when he was given a certificate to mark his grand marshal position.

The parade steps off at 10 a.m. from the corner of River and Benton streets and takes a rectangular route around downtown, crossing the Fox River twice. It marches east on Benton to Broadway Avenue, heads north to Galena Boulevard, then takes Galena west before turning south on Stolp Avenue, west on Downer Place and concluding at Middle Avenue.

Kids and families line downtown streets for Aurora’s Fourth of July parade. This year’s parade will follow the same route as usual, a rectangle through downtown crossing the Fox River twice. Daily Herald file photo

If you go

What: Aurora Fourth of July Parade

When: Pre-parade ceremony at 9:15 a.m.; parade steps off at 10 a.m. Monday

Where: Ceremony at Paramount Theatre, 23 E. Galena Blvd.; parade starts at corner of River and Benton streets, Aurora

Who: Sponsored by Aurora-Roosevelt American Legion Post 84 and the city of Aurora

Cost: Free

Info: (630) 256-4636 or aurora-il.org