Last Saturday, August 20th, the annual Western Welcome Week parade ended the week of festivities, spanning the entire length of Littleton Boulevard, and including various schools and organizations. The parade has been one of Littleton’s largest events for the past 94 years and it’s vital to the city’s culture.
Schools from all around Littleton, Centennial, and Aurora got a chance to march in the parade, including LHS. The parade also showcased marching bands, colorguards, and cheer teams from Heritage, Front Range Christian School, Arapahoe, Grandview, Mountain Vista, Smoky Hill, Cherry Creek, Elizabeth, Eaglecrest, Legend, Overland, and Columbine.
The parade is especially important to the LHS marching band and has always been a large beginning-of-year event.
Drum major Josie Schell shares why this year in particular was special for the band.
“We got to have a lot more fun with it, so that meant we could go around and high-five kids and that was really fun and enjoyable, and something to look forward to compared to last year,” said Schell.
Drum major Bex Oaster also offers some input.
“The weather was really nice this year, usually it’s sweltering hot and the uniforms are polyester,” said Oaster. “It was nice for it to be cloudy and rainy, so it was a lot more enjoyable than it usually is.”
“We got to do a lot more dancing stuff. Usually, drum majors just spin what’s called mace but we actually got to do stuff with the band so it felt a lot more involved than I think it normally would,” said Oaster. “This was my first year getting to spin mace so it was a new thing which was really exciting for me.”
The parade featured not only the band but also Colorguard and the Lionettes!
Aside from high schools, the parade showcased many local organizations, some of which include the Colorado Center for the Blind, the Golden Westernaires, the Mountaineers Square Dance Club, O’Tooles Garden Centers, the Littleton Town Hall Arts Center, Littleton City Council, and more. There were also numerous emergency responders from all over the city who were shown appreciation from the crowd. Littleton High School graduating classes of 1957 and 1967 both made an appearance as well, proving that Lion Pride lasts a lifetime!
This year’s parade proved to be a great success and helped to continue the timeless tradition of Western Welcome Week.
