At the start of the year, organizers of Saratoga Springs’ annual Flag Day parade announced they didn’t have the funding to put on the June tradition. But, the community has rallied to keep the event marching along…
A Flag Day parade has made its way down Broadway since 1968 – 57 years of patriotism only interrupted once during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In January, that streak appeared ready to break.
“We have a board of directors that's responsible for fiduciary matters, and we had discussed some of the things that we've been seeing over the last couple of years and the challenges that we've been having, and we brought them to the full membership to discuss, and it there was a it was a lengthy discussion that ultimately led us to vote to suspend operations at this time,” said Kathy Jackson.
Kathy Jackson has been the exalted ruler of Saratoga-Wilton Elks Lodge No. 161 for two years and the parade chair for the past four years.
She says the annual parade now costs between $10,000 and $12,000, a bill covered completely by lodge fundraising. She says it’s been getting more difficult to raise that kind of cash.
“We've had sponsors that have passed away, that we've been unable to replace. We've had sponsors that have had to reduce the amount that they sponsor the parade because of all of the people in the community, the organizations in the community that need help, and we completely understand that there are limited funds, and those funds need to be need to be distributed where they're going to do the most good,” said Jackson.
Then there’s the issue of recruiting individuals and groups to march in the parade – Jackson had been a member of a local drum and bugle group when she began marching in the parade four decades ago.
“At this point, there are zero drum and bugle corps at that level in this state. There are only about two dozen nationally. So that becomes a challenge. There are some senior corps the closest to here is more than 90 miles away,” said Jackson.
Mayor John Safford previously served as the parade’s chief marshal for nearly a decade. He put out the word that the tradition was in trouble.
“It just brings back something that I think a lot of us have forgotten about or lost. It brings a reminder of something, the tradition of our city, the tradition of something like a parade like this, a patriotic parade. A lot of people really enjoy that and we really just didn’t want to lose that,” said Safford.
The parade celebrates local veterans and is a chance to celebrate the work the lodge does to support community organizations. Since it was chartered in 1902, Jackson says the lodge has raised and donated more than $25 million locally.
Safford recruited Robert Millis to help this year’s effort. He owns and operates the 398 Group, a local event planning company.
“I can still distinctly remember when my little boy was about two or three years old watching this parade go by and I can still hear him shrieking when he saw his grandfather go by in one of the convertibles, waving at him. So, that’s one of the images of your family and your kids growing up that’s implanted in your mind, so that sticks with me. So, it’s kind of like, alright, I’ve got to keep this going so families in the future can have the same kind of experience we did, you know,” said Millis.
So far, the effort to fund the parade is working – the lodge met its initial $5,000 goal at the beginning of March, clearing the way to greenlight the parade with the assumption that the remaining funds would be raised after that first hurdle.
Jackson says as organizations like the Elks struggle across the country, it’s encouraging to see this local chapter receive community support.
“Countrywide, we give back charitable donations of more than a half a billion dollars annually. We are the second largest giver of scholarships, being second only to the federal government. Every year, we run the soccer shoot and hoop shoot programs that result in national competitions for kids, which are just outstanding. We do unbelievable works for our veterans, our homeless. You know, we are plugging into our community, every place we can possibly plug in,” said Jackson.
