Arizona City Daze 2018

One of the volunteer activities we enjoy while at our Arizona home is working with the local Chamber of Commerce to help with the annual Arizona City Daze celebration in February.  Here's some photos regarding this year's event on Feb. 24th.

Volunteer efforts on the part of Ken, Mike, & Rich include marking out the street for the vendor's booths and then for the parade line-up.  None of these guys need to go to the local health club for exercise this week!

The big parade starts off each year with the historic airplane flyover down Sunland Gin Rd, the main street of Arizona City. 

The JROTC from Vista Grande High School in Casa Grande leads the parade by presenting the colors.  These cadets won the Judge's Choice award for Marching this year.

The 2018 Grand Marshal is Gilbert Tarango from our County Road Dept.  The parade theme in 2018 is "Honoring Everyday Heroes".  Indeed Gilbert 's contributions are exemplary...he's a hero in this city!

The local Make Kids Smile float was the Judge's choice in the comic category.

The Casa Grande 4-Wheelers club gave us quite a show as they paraded down the street and were awarded the Judge's Choice in the Motorcycle /4wheeler category.

The Methodist Church float titled "God's Angels Watch Over Our Heroes" was the Judges Choice for the Best of Show Float.  

A local favorite is always the Clydesdale horses that are presented  by the Bradys.

Here's another parade winner along with the many children in the following photo...both pictures represent the Arizona City Elementary School.  As you may have guessed, the school's mascot is A BULLDOG!!!!

The cheering children and their mascot were selected as the Grand Champion Youth entry.

The Arizona City Golfers went "all out" to honor their "EVERYDAY HEROES".  Here's just a sample of the many golf carts that were decorated to honor those heroes such as school bus drivers and life flight.  LOTS of effort went into these entries that were awarded the Judges Choice in the Civic Category.

The Sabaar Shriners from Tucson in their fun little vehicles are always a delightful entry in our local celebration.

Of course a big wave from Sparky brings many smiles as the fire department heads down the parade route.  There were aboout 50 different entries in the 2018 parade...another memorable community celebration.

Following the parade, the local residents and our visitors enjoy entertainment on the big stage, a fun carnival, and shopping from the many vendors!  It's full day of festivity.

There's always lots that goes on behind the scenes and our community is very grateful to the JROTC Cadets.  About 40 of them join us during the parade to assist with traffic control and make sure that safety is a #1 priority.  Here we are presenting them with an award in their classroom from the Arizona City Chamber of Commerce.

Before the end of the day...other local heroes (lots of volunteers and friends)... join in taking down the stage, etc.  It all has to be done before dark as there are NO street lights in Arizona City ;-).