Photograph by Skye Dunlap

Members of the Chinese Senior Citizens' Club showed their spirit dancing through the parade with their Chinese dragon




Kicking off Y2K in the streets

Celebrate Sunnyvale 2000 parade brings out that old-time small-town feeling

By Sam Scott

Flush with success, Suzi Blackman has no qualms about giving her opinion of the Celebrate Sunnyvale 2000 Parade.

"Did you see that parade?" she asks enthusiastically. "That was a great parade."

As the event's chair, Blackman has a bias. But there aren't too many people disagreeing with her.

Alumni from Sunnyvale High School, carrying letters that shimmered out the city's name, began the parade. Behind them followed a carnival of marching bands, clubs, dancers, gymnasts, football players, dignitaries, cars, horses, dogs and motorcycles. The procession took more than an hour to finish.

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Parade Pictures: More photos from the Celebrate Sunnyvale 2000 Parade

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A crowd lined the route, getting thicker as the parade neared the Town Center Mall. People sat on curbs, porches or chairs they had brought out. Sitting on a wicker bench, Ruth Brown, a longtime Sunnyvale resident, squeezed next to her daughter Cindy and granddaughter Monica.

Brown says the parade shows a side of Sunnyvale that has survived all the growth she has seen.

"It was a small town when I moved here. There are more people here but it's still a small town," she says as the Sunnyvale Grandmothers Club waves to Monica from their truck. "This is very Sunnyvale."

Many people seemed to delight in the community spirit.

"It's kind of neat to get that small town feeling," John Koncoli says. A native New Yorker, Koncoli says he has seen some serious St. Patrick's Day and Thanksgiving parades, but appreciates the Sunnyvale version. "You don't get this feeling a lot in the Bay Area. It's good."

Amit Jindal, originally from India, his wife, and parents, got to the parade an hour early.

"I like to see the enthusiasm of the people here. That's exciting."

Among the most enthusiastic spectators were children. Kids and their parents constituted the majority of the people on the sidelines.

"I'm making out pretty good with the candy," Chase Forbes, 10, says. Candy was being liberally dispensed by marchers. Forbes is standing in his front yard with his parents as the Cupertino High School Marching Band marches buy. His digital camera is perhaps the only part of the picture that wouldn't belong at a parade in Main Street USA.

"I didn't know it was going to be this big," he says.

Neither did the organizers. Margaret Lawson, one of the organizers of Celebrate Sunnyvale 2000, says she originally imagined maybe 30 entries in the parade. Nearly 70 took part. Blackman estimates 1000 people participated.

Blackman says many people came up to her after everything had finished with congratulations and to ask if there would be another parade next year.

"If we can find enough quality volunteers, we're all for it."

Blackman says the Chamber of Commerce has parade sweaters for those interested in buying them.

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