Skokie July 4 Parade To Celebrate Local Heroes After 2-Year Hiatus

SKOKIE, IL — When the Skokie 4th of July parade returns to the streets of the village next month for the first time in three years, organizers plan to honor representatives of some of the professions that helped the community weather the coronavirus pandemic.

Rich Evonitz, who chairs the Skokie 4th of July Committee, said this year's parade will feature a mix of returning favorites — like the Jesse White Tumblers — and new participants, like the 144th Illinois Army National Guard Band.

"This two-year hiatus and these pandemic times — the real challenge has always been the things we've missed because of our inability to get together. But now, because things are at a point where we feel confident that we can have the parade, we want to bring it back," Evonitz said.

Grand marshals are due to include health care, public health, public safety and educational professionals — including 2021 Illinois Teacher of the Year Justin Johnson, band director at Niles West High School.

Related: Niles West Band Director Wins Illinois Teacher Of The Year Award

Three military veterans will also serve as 2021 grand marshals, according to organizers. Gerald Jaffee, who served in Vietnam for nearly a year after being drafted in 1968, Paul Plotnik, who retired from the U.S. Army to become a public defender and a teacher in Chicago Public Schools, and Hank Gould, a longtime Skokie resident who spent 24 years in the Illinois National Guard after enlisting in 1949.

Wayne Messmer, the legendary singer and broadcaster, is scheduled to perform the National Anthem to kick off the parade at the Oakton Community College parking lot.

And retired broadcaster and WGN news anchor Roger Badesch will return as master of ceremonies for the sixth time.

Badesch, an Evanston native, said the resumption of a traditional Fourth of July celebration helps people feel like normality has returned, to a point.

"I'm ecstatic that the whole world is kind of opening back up and people are getting back together, albeit cautiously, hopefully," Badesch said.

"I think this is really the signal that we've kind of made it over this pandemic together, and I think that's what this is going to be. It's a celebration of the spirit of our country and the people in all the fields ... who were there for all of us to help us get through the pandemic, to help guide us through it," he told Patch. "That's a special thing that we're going to have this year."

Annual traditions like the parade have their own rhythm and a natural flow, Evonitz said, and he hopes this year marks the end of interruptions to the treasured village tradition.

"We really needed to bring this parade back, because with this two-year hiatus, it was a little bit more challenging to get people to participate," said the organizing committee chair. "Because people were out of the habit of, 'Oh yeah, we're going to Skokie for 4th of July.'"

The former Niles Township High School District 219 board member said he was aided this year in his first parade as committee chair by past co-chairs Alan Gertsner and Bob Quane.

"It's about bringing people back," Evonitz said, "doing the things that we did prior to these pandemic times and then getting in the habit of doing them."

---

Returning to its usual route, the parade is set to begin at noon at the parking lot of Oakton Community College, 7701 Lincoln Ave., before heading north along Lincoln Avenue, turning east on Oakton Avenue, and ending just past the Oakton Community Center, 4701 Oakton St.

As of three weeks before the parade, there were 73 confirmed units and more than 1,500 participants set to march in the parade, according to a summary of its program.

Badesch, who traditionally greets the crowd via golf cart before taking up his announcer's position at the end of the route, anticipates this year's gathering to have new meaning to the community.

"Nothing has really pulled — or can pull — a people together like the Fourth of July. Yeah, sure, we shoot off fireworks, and everyone flies the flag, and we go out and have picnics, and the family gets together for barbecues, and you plan vacations around the Fourth of July. But it's more than just a visual thing, a physical thing — it's a spiritual thing," he said.

"Especially with what we've been through the last couple of years, I think this year is going to be extra special to everybody."