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Discover the heartbeat of Juneau's cultural and community landscape with 'Capital Chat.' This series explores the vibrant world of the community, arts, and dynamic cultural and social events happening in Alaska's Capital City. Tune in to 'Capital Chat' for your essential guide to the pulse of our community, where every story is an adventure and every voice matters.
And now Capital Chat on KINY, where we connect you with Juno and Southeast Alaska's community organizations only on KINY.
Speaker 2:Joining me from the Juno fourth of July Parade is Alicia Nessler. Good morning.
Speaker 3:Good morning. Good morning.
Speaker 2:Fourth of July Parade. I love that we're talking, but, you know, we've all had the winter of, you know what? Yeah. And, the weather's starting to get nice. Got some sunshine today, which is great.
Speaker 3:Oh, it's beautiful.
Speaker 2:And, thinking about the July 4 is wonderful. So what's planned this year? And and if folks wanna participate, we'll let them know how to do that too. Right?
Speaker 3:Yeah. Today or not today, but July 4 this year is gonna be the semi sesquicentennial of the nation's Independence Day. So that's exciting. We have some new entries that have never been in this year, including the Daughters of the Revolution. So that's super fun.
Speaker 3:They sent me some information. They said that they are, all of the people that are all of the women that are in it because it's a women's organization. They are all descendants of American revolution fighters. So that's pretty spectacular. We also have, Arrowhead LNP Gas is the first year that they're in it, and they're a community community owned business.
Speaker 3:We have our grand marshals. We have four of them this year making up for last year when we didn't have any.
Speaker 2:Right. Right. I love that you have Kade.
Speaker 3:Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2:Young Kade this year.
Speaker 3:There's been such an incredible, like, excitement around that. We have never had the social media response that we have had with Cade, like, literally. And I think that that speaks to the beauty of the community of Juno coming together and supporting this this young boy and his family. It's amazing.
Speaker 2:His genetic journey and what the family has done and what this community has done for the family to rally and raise the money they needed in order to submit for the protocol and and use the gene therapy that's only available because far too expensive. Yeah. Mean, it's incredible journey. We've had a mom on many times and and, yeah, that's very exciting. So Kate is one of the grand marshals.
Speaker 2:Who else?
Speaker 3:We also have, and I might say her name wrong, Leticia McRae. She does she's she's like a one woman wonder. She does a lot of community cleanup by herself. She self funds, and she literally she'll go out and, fill a truck and take it to the dump. And people send her funds, and, she she takes care of it on her own time and sometimes on her own dime.
Speaker 3:And that's that's pretty phenomenal. She's keeping Juno beautiful, like, with everything that she has.
Speaker 2:Who else?
Speaker 3:We've got Litter Free, who partners with Alaska Waste and they're, for the last three years, I think it's been, they have been at the end of the parade kind of like as our caboose, and they clean up all of this stuff that gets, like, run over by all the other cars.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 3:And we wanted to honor them because they're always in the community also and always cleaning up the community and really encouraging people to be litter free.
Speaker 2:Fantastic. And the final grand marshal is?
Speaker 3:The last one we're waiting for absolute confirmation on, but I did hear from them yesterday that they're really excited to potentially participate, and that is Trail Mix. And they are the organization that keeps our trails up and, like, helps keep beautiful, Gino beautiful and accessible for everybody that wants to go out and hike and enjoy the nature.
Speaker 2:Fantastic. And do you find because it's, such a landmark, celebration this year that excitement is is higher than maybe in years past?
Speaker 3:I'm still a little tentative on that. I know that people are excited, but, like, with every year, it seems like people are waiting until, like, June maybe to put in some of their applications or, entries rather to the parade. But we have had several amazing sponsors step up. So that's been encouraging, because we are entirely community sponsorship funded. So that's been cool.
Speaker 3:But, yeah, I've had a few people like like Dara is really excited. Daughters of the Revolution, they're excited. The semi siscicentennial, I just like saying that word because it's super fun.
Speaker 2:I'm glad you are because I'm not gonna take you out of so that that's important. If if, businesses or organizations wanna get involved, wanna have a float, wanna participate in the parade Yeah. They need to send their application where?
Speaker 3:Yeah. The website is junofourthofjuly.net, and every single entry this year is only $25, in honor of the two hundred and fiftieth, Independence anniversary. And all military is free and all children are free just like every year. So if you're a youth sponsored, or a youth floater entry or a military floater entry, your entry is free.
Speaker 2:And, Alicia, you do most of the heavy lifting on this parade yourself, don't you?
Speaker 3:I do I do a lot of the behind the scenes work. Yeah. I I have a good partner, Kai. He's usually available. He's not here this morning, but he helps out a lot.
Speaker 3:And we we walk around, we get sponsors, we send out emails. And but primarily, I have I have a on demand website guy, when he's available. And, it's it's it's his and my ideas basically spitballing and putting things together this year.
Speaker 2:Fantastic. Fourth of July Parade. Can't wait to be in it. Alicia, thanks for coming in and sharing the story and getting everybody hyped up about it.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Thanks for having me. I love sharing about it.
Speaker 1:Get the latest on local events, services, and opportunities. It's all on Capital Chat, only on KINY.