The Ketchikan Chamber of Commerce announced the Fourth of July parade theme and grand marshal this week. Here’s Chamber Manager Chelsea Goucher, at the organization’s weekly lunch.
“We picked a theme and a grand marshal – and our grand marshal happens to be here: Hall Anderson,” she said. “And our theme this year is ‘A Moment in Time; Snapshots of Ketchikan’s Past.’”
Anderson has been the staff photographer at the Ketchikan Daily News for about three decades. In addition to capturing the community’s day-to-day life through news and feature photos, he also has photographed about 30-years’ worth of Fourth of July parades.
Anderson plans to retire at the beginning of July.
The parade theme is meant to spark ideas for floats.
“So hopefully, that’s kind of a cool, fun theme that people can design different floats around, and get back to Ketchikan’s past and some retro stuff, and the fun things and different permutations that we’ve been through as a community,” Goucher said.
This year’s parade will start at Tatsuda’s IGA, and will head toward The Plaza mall. Groups that want to enter the parade have until June 23 to register. Prizes will be awarded for best theme interpretation, most patriotic and most representative of Ketchikan.