By Angela L. Davenport
The first ever Utah Special Olympics parade will be Thursday, June 1 at 6 p.m. along University Parkway and Canyon Road.
“It was an idea from last year to get the community more involved,” said Community Involvement Assistant Manager, Tiffany Smedley, a recent BYU zoology graduate from Layton.
The parade route will begin west on University Parkway and continue south down Canyon Road. The athletes will march into the opening ceremonies at the BYU track, meeting the rest of their teammates.
“We have a parade of athletes every year,” said Community Involvement Manager Tiffany Idiart, a BYU family science graduate from Provo. “It’s never been a full-on parade with other entities.”
As athletes march along the remainder of the track, their names will be read, and the torch will be lit.
All other floats will continue southward on Canyon Road to park.
Five members of each Olympic team will walk in the parade. There are approximately 50-60 teams involved.
“It make it personable when you see them that close,” Smedley said.
Other floats will include a police barricade, the Provo Fire Department, old cars, Orem and Springville royalties, clowns, high school dance teams and bands.
All parade participants should arrive at the BYU Marriott Center Parking lot by 5 p.m. for line up.
The parade of athletes is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. in Cougar Stadium. Free food and entertainment will be in Olympic Village, said Parade Committee Member Edward Lehnardt, a senior majoring in exercise science from Kansas City, Missouri.
“Amazingly it all pulls together,” Idiart said. “Basically, all the grunt work and scheduling just happens by student volunteers.”
The committee expects a good turn out. Among community members attending, almost 1,400 Especially for Youth participants will be supporting the athletes.
