Parade

Participants are being sought for Baltimore's second Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Celebration Parade on Jan. 21, the city office of promotion announced. Applications are due Friday. High school and community marching bands, floats, equestrian units, Scout troops, church choirs and others interested in participating may contact the promotion office for more information regarding the noontime parade. The application is available online through the Daily Events Calendar at www.baltimoreevents.

The Westminster Fallfest parade, usually held on a Wednesday night as part of opening festivities, will be held at 3 p.m. today. The 25th anniversary parade will assemble on Monroe Street and begin marching down Pennsylvania Avenue, east on Main Street to Longwell Avenue to East Middle School. Motorists should expect delays if they are traveling in the area during parade time. The parade will feature about 60 units, including Westminster police and fire officials and vehicles; antique fire and police vehicles; local municipal and high school bands; dance teams; motorcycles; 4-H clubs; floats; church groups; civic, public and health organizations; gymnastics groups; day care centers; majorette and drum corps marching units; color guards; cheerleaders; and businesses.

In 24 years as an organizer of the "I Am an American Day Parade," William J. Lockwood has seen it all and done it all.He remembers the brave man who threw himself on top of a group of runaway horses, saving a group of majorettes from being trampled.He remembers the woman who vaulted on stage and elbowed him aside to grab Henry "The Fonz" Winkler, the popular sitcom star of Happy Days. But this Sunday, the skilled crafter and weaver of pageantry will see the patriotic display pick up its 56-year-old East Baltimore roots and move to Dundalk, where the festivities will start at 2 p.m. sharp, "rain or shine."

FREDERICK -- Dame Barbara Fritchie stuck her white-capped head out of an attic window yesterday and defiantly waved the stars and stripes, culminating a festive and patriotic parade celebrating Frederick's 250th anniversary.Organizers estimated that about 20,000 people lined 17 blocks of Frederick's two main streets to watch a two-hour parade that feted the city's rich and colorful history and showcased its many long-standing civic and social organizations, businesses, churches and other institutions.

Crofton Convalescent Center staff and residents are hoisting the U.S., German and Italian flags this week to celebrate the opening of their Olympics.The flags represent the three teams that will compete in a series of events, including an egg toss, trivia contest, scavenger hunt, bowling and wheelchair races.A parade yesterday kicked off the activities. The athletes marched behind their respective flags, and a torchbearer carried the eternal flame. Medals will be awarded to winners during Friday's closing ceremonies.

This year's Preakness Celebration will cost less and have more of a home-grown look, organizers say. But the event that may have attracted the most community involvement -- the Preakness Parade -- has been canceled.The 10-day festival, which starts tomorrow, lost more than $35,000 last year and has struggled to attract sponsors for costlier events.In the place of the parade and other events, such as a celebrity tennis tournament, the celebration will concentrate on activities with a greater "community" orientation,which are also easier on the budget.

AT 10 A.M. Saturday, the Crofton Civic Association will sponsor the 7th Annual Armed Forces Day Parade. The route begins at Crofton Woods Elementary School and continues around Crofton Parkway to Crofton Elementary School.Many musical groups and organizations are involved in this year's parade. The Arundel High School Marching Band will perform, along with four out-of-state bands -- which will be in the area to compete at a music festival.Parade watchers will also enjoy motorcycle riders from the Boumi Temple, Prince George's Bag Pipe Unit, the Zamboni from Skate Nation in Piney Orchard, Crofton Athletic Council baseball and softball players, political notables from the area, the Maryland State Police Annapolis J Barracks Color Guard, floats, military vehicles from Fort Meade and other participants in the celebration of patriotism and community spirit.

Tori Gibson may have had the best seat for the anti-drug parade thatwound its way through the sweltering streets of Annapolis Saturday afternoon. All she had to do was lie in the back of a city truck.One catch: She was lying in a coffin."People were saying, 'You're crazy, I won't do that until I die,'" Gibson said.But that was the point. The Annapolis woman gave up a vacation to Virginia's Shenandoah National Park to participate inthe parade, saying it was more important to dramatize the potentially fatal consequences of playing with drugs.

ON the cold, rainy Sunday of Mother's Day, May 11, 1969, a thin, short and mostly silent parade of five floats rolled bravely out of the Fifth Regiment Armory south down Howard Street.The paraders would go to Baltimore Street, turn east to Holliday and end up at City Hall. The marshal of the parade, such as it was, was Frank Hennessy, a local sports and media personality best known as spokesperson for National Beer and its promotional sailing vessel, "Chester Peake." Police estimated the crowd, all the way from the armory to City Hall, at fewer than 150 people.

They had a big, colorful parade through the streets of Baltimore yesterday -- an anti-drug parade filled with cute, healthy kids playing drums and carrying signs against illicit chemicals that kill the mind, spirit, and body.Under the direction and blessings of the Housing Authority of Baltimore, they marched from the state office building complex on Preston Street to the Inner Harbor, demonstrating what it's like to be happy and straight.And in between all the kids -- poor kids, mostly, growing up in O'Donnell Heights, Westport Homes, the Latrobe projects and other public housing where people shoot dope and guns -- were politicians.