At the beginning of the year, Saratoga Springs’ annual Flag Day parade was set to be cancelled due to a lack of funding. But after months of fundraising and community support, the tradition carried on this weekend…
The Saratoga-Wilton Elks Lodge has been organizing Flag Day parades in the Spa City since 1968.
Take away one missed year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and that’s 57 years of community celebration and tradition.
But in January, with nowhere near the $11,000 needed to put this sized parade together, lodge Exalted Ruler Kathy Jackson had to make an impossible call.
“We actually cancelled the parade. I had to address the city council on January 22nd and then two days later I got a phone call from the mayor and he said ‘you’re on speaker phone, bunch of people in the room, if we can help will you guys be able to make this happen?’ And that is how we were able to make this happen to cancel. So, John Safford all the way,” said Jackson.
Jackson is beaming with pride, if also rushing just minutes before the 1,800 participants step off.
There are local bike clubs, a dozen llamas, and large cohort of sailors from the Naval Nuclear Power Training Unit in Ballston Spa.
There’s a float carrying the Racing City Chorus.
Fred Polnisch is nearby, dressed as Uncle Sam – something he’s done at regional patriotic events for the past 30 years. Though, he says, Saratoga Springs’ parade is special.
“Just going down Broadway! I love being on Broadway! Parades are a blast. Plus, you might make the paper, or make the radio,” said Polnisch.
A steel drum band is a few floats up Broadway.
And around the corner, the Avant Garde Alumni Drum Line is warming up.
Flip Phillips said he joined on a whim 13 years ago after seeing the group in this very parade.
Yeah, no it’s always exciting. We’ll go anywhere. We’ve done firemen’s parades in the middle of nowhere. We’ve done death march-style parades. I hate—this sounds a little extreme but we do it for us and the fact that people love it—we get a lot of requests for us. We tend to be entertaining,” said Phillips.
Jackson, still busy making sure all the groups are set to perform, says the parade is a vital tradition for local city residents.
“This is the kick-off to summer in Saratoga. I know we’ve had the Belmont the last three years, but we’ve had this parade for 57 years. There are people who have grown up with this parade and everything happens after that. People start coming downtown and eating outside at the restaurants and going to Congress Park. It’s just a great place to be and I see this as the kickoff,” said Jackson.
Another float is carrying a scaled-down submarine conning tower – a portion of the submarine that surfaces first. It comes with a real diving horn.
For Base Commander of the Albany Submarine Veterans Jim Cree, the parade is a chance to celebrate American troops and veterans.
“It means a lot. It means a lot because when you see really patriotic Americans waving a flag, it means a lot to all of us. We do seven or eight parades a year, rain or shine we come out. If it’s pouring rain, we’ll be there,” said Cree.
But the parade and attached celebration of the United States can be a bit nuanced for some participants. Take Parker Diggory, who grew up watching the parade and is now representing the Saratoga Immigration Coalition, she’s dressed as Lady Liberty.
“Right now, I do have some views that maybe aren’t shared by everyone around here when it comes to how we should be welcoming immigrants, I think we should be doing that radically and inclusively and we should be protecting all of our neighbors regardless of immigration status. So, maybe that’s not a 100% completely celebrated idea, but it’s mine and I’m glad I’m included in this,” said Diggory.
Just steps away, Saratoga Pride board member Heather Roselan reflects on how important it is that this event is open to all.
“It really just is so amazing because we are all here, we’re all part of the same place, we’re all trying to celebrate 250 years of America and be together as a community and be together with all these different groups with different views. To have everybody in the same space safely together is really amazing,” said Roselan.
