Organizer: No regrets in canceling Arlington Heights parade
The organizer of Arlington Heights' Memorial Day parade says he has no regrets about canceling the event due to weather concerns, even though predicted storms did not move into the area until later Monday morning.
“I made the decision trying to do the best thing for everybody in terms of safety,” said Greg Padovani, organizer and chairman of the Veterans Memorial Committee in Arlington Heights.
Padovani made the call on Friday to cancel the parade for the first time in the history of what has become one of the largest marches in the Northwest suburbs. He said it was a “gut-wrenching choice” to make, but after seeing days of overlapping forecasts calling for strong storms Monday morning, it was the best choice in terms of safety.
The rain hit around 10:30 a.m., about 90 minutes after the parade would have started. Typically 3,500 people march in the Arlington Heights parade, including 1,500 children and many elderly veterans.
It was one of the few parades to be canceled on Monday.
“The other parades are much smaller than ours, the distance they march is much shorter and the ability to have participants take shelter in the event of a storm was much better,” Padovani said. “A few hundred people you can get off the street easily; a few thousand — no.”
The Memorial Day ceremony honoring Arlington Heights' fallen veterans took place in the gymnasium at Christian Liberty Academy with between 750 and 1,000 people in attendance, he said.
“The whole purpose of the day is focused on the ceremony and doing justice to the families of fallen heroes, and we did that,” Padovani said.
Padovani said he has received hundreds of emails since he decided to cancel the parade, and about 90 percent of the writers supported or understood his choice.
Some residents disagreed, though.
“I think it is ridiculous to cancel the Monday Memorial Day Parade on Friday,” resident John Arado said . “We have had plenty of rainy Memorial Days, which did not affect the parade. What are these people thinking?”
The cancellation didn't stop Arlington Heights resident Don Long from walking the parade route alone while carrying an American flag Monday morning. Long said he decided to walk to pay tribute to veterans.
“They went and fought wars in a lot worse weather than this. I don't think the enemy stopped firing because it started to rain,” said Long, 62. “I was personally insulted, quite frankly.”
Long said his father served in World War II and his grandfather was stationed in France during World War I.
A few people on the sidewalk applauded Long while drivers honked their horns at him as they traveled past.
“We need to remember what these holidays are for and to pay homage,” Long said. “I walked the parade route proudly.”
Padovani starts working on the Memorial Day Parade a year in advance and said he is already planning for a successful, and hopefully sunny Memorial Day 2016.