New leader, date for Poway Days Parade

By Steve Dreyer

There will be a Poway Days Parade after all.

The 49th edition of the parade will be held on Saturday, Sept. 7 under the auspices of the Rotary Club of Poway-Scripps, retiring parade chair Sabrina Butler announced this week. Pauline Getz, a past president of both the club and the Chamber of Commerce, will head the parade committee.

Getz on Tuesday said the parade’s date will be changed from Sept. 14 to Sept. 7 to avoid having it on the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur.

A handful of community volunteers met Friday night at Butler’s home to discuss the parade’s future. Getz said the 2013 version will be run by a combination of experienced and first-time organizers.

The group agreed that this year’s theme will be “I Love a Fit Poway.” According to Getz, the theme is intended in part to tie into a planned 5K walk/run that will be held on the same Saturday morning, well before the parade’s start. Plans are also being made to hold a health-fitness expo near the run’s finish line to fill the period between the end of the race and the start of the parade.

Getz said her Rotary club for some time had been considering doing something in the community to encourage fitness and healthy lifetstyles and that sponsoring the parade fit the bill perfectly.

The parade will kick off several weeks of Poway Days activities that will conclude with the Poway Rodeo on Sept. 27 and 28 and the Tour de Poway Fun Bike Ride on Oct. 6.