COVER STORY
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. San Ramon Rd
Page 12ÊUÊMarch 16, 2012ÊUÊPleasanton Weekly
Pancake Breakfast
marching with her fellow students from Fallon Elementary School. A few characters in costume walk the parade route, such as a guy dressed up like a hotdog in a bun to advertise a local fast food eatery. “The kids enjoy that sort of thing,” Burnham said. Mayor Sbranti, who grew up in Dublin, said that being in the parade is like a rite of passage for residents, as it features Little League teams, Scouts and other community groups. “I was in it a couple of times, growing up,” he recalled. Now he parades down the route as mayor, and when he is finished he will go to the bleachers and co-announce the entries with former Mayor Janet Lockhart. “I enjoy doing the parade,” Sbranti said. “The
parade, as big as it is, could even be bigger but we chose to keep it more modest in size. A lot of outside vendors talk about coming in and trying to make it like Macys’ Thanksgiving Day parade, with big outside floats and vendors. But we like the parade to have a local hometown feel.” Burnham said the 80 parade slots were filled several weeks ago. The Lions Club charges $50 for nonprofit groups and $75 for commercial entries. “We give away balloons and beads, and there’s all the signage,” he explained. “It got pretty costly.” Burnham has kept his sense of humor as he figures out the logistics of the parade each year. For instance, the marching order. He organizes entries into two parts — front and back — and then alternates each year.
Donohue Dr.
BY DOLORES FOX CIARDELLI
Enjoy an Irish jig this weekend. Dublin is going green as the Tri-Valley gathers to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with a pancake breakfast Saturday, a parade, a festival that lasts all day, both days, and the Shamrock Fun Run. “I’m 100% Italian but I’m 100% Irish that weekend,” said Dublin Mayor Tim Sbranti. Firefighters start serving their famous green pancakes at 7 a.m. at Station No. 16, on the corner of Donohue Drive and Amador Valley Boulevard. No reservations are needed, just $5 to cover the cost of the breakfast, which will last until 10 a.m. The Dublin Lions Club Parade begins at 9:30 a.m., with staging on Amador Plaza Road near Safeway, and heads south, turning left to go under the freeway and looping around. “The Lions Club (which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year) started the parade in 1983, the year after the city became a city,” recalled Bill Burnham, who ran the first parade and has been its director every year since. “The mayor at the time, Pete Snyder, was a Lions Club member. He suggested, now that we’re a city we should be put on the map with something. He suggested a parade.” Burnham and fellow Lion Scott Thompson rounded up a couple dozen entries with about 250 people and staged the parade from the parking lot at Dublin High School. “After two to three years we outgrew the parking lot and now we’re downtown,” Burnham said. “We have to max it out at 80 entries. We have floats and horses. You name it, we have it.” He said he tried using committees to organize the parade and coordinate with the city in the early years but for the last 25 or so has found it easier to do the planning by himself. “Then every Lions Club member shows up Saturday morning to help out,” he said. “We blow up balloons, pass out beads, direct traffic, do just about everything.” Bands come from Dublin schools, and this year there will be two new bagpipe units, Burnham said. “Last year we had 2,600 people in the parade,” he noted. “And as far as watching, it was about close to 10,000.” The best place to view the parade, he said, is on or near the bleachers at the corner of Amador Valley Boulevard and Village Parkway, where the announcers are located, along with cameras from Tri-Valley Community TV, which airs the festivities later. “Get there early,” Burnham advised. Seating in the bleachers is first come, first served. “We try to discourage saving places,” he said. The parade starts off with a banner reading “Dublin Lions Club.” School groups are featured, as well as their bands, and this year the parade’s grand marshal will be Danielle Green, 8, whose birthday falls on St. Patrick’s Day. She will be
Parade End Para Sta
. Dublin Blvd
“But some complain, ‘Why can’t I b he said. “The same people complain e E Clampus Vitus, the men’s club California history and drinking, used “precision drill team,” he reported. “They pulled a wagon with beer drink it,” he recalled. “Their ‘drill t log they carried and they’d stop and in the log. “The Police Department didn’t say but half a dozen women complained. Burnham expressed their concerns pus Vitus. “They pretty much told me in no terms that if they’re not allowed to do not be back,” he remembered. People also complained a few years Miller Lite had a 40-foot trailer in