Fall Fest Survival Guide: What to Watch for at This Year's Parade

There's something rather appropriate for the  parade to have a theme--Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!--based on The Wizard of Oz, what with all the following involved. 

The parade starts at 1 p.m. Sunday at the corner of Maple and Pacific streets. This year's grand marshall will be Lincoln-Way High School District 210 Superintendent Lawrence Wyllie, and the winners of Saturday's costume contest will be on the Fall Festival float. You can print out a map of the parade route in the photo gallery, and .

But the highlight of the parade will be when the members of the  wheel a steel beam from the World Trade Center through the village streets.

The 9/11 artifact, , will be part of a procession at the beginning of the parade of about 200 firefighters from around the area and a dozen bagpipers, said Chief Jim Grady. 

When I spoke with Grady last week, he talked about how humbling and sobering it has been for himself and the other firefighters to be in the presence of this tragic piece of American history, . It's a feeling he hopes village residents will have when they see it in the parade.

"This turned out to be more than a piece of steel," Grady said.

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