Peachtree City has one the best Fourth of July parades in Georgia. This year’s parade was a great celebration with over 200 civic, school, religious, governmental, political, and commercial organizations participating.
The biggest challenge facing spectators is finding standing room along the parade route. Although Peachtree City Hall “discouraged” the placement of tarps and blankets this year, over 3,000 tarps and blankets lined the parade route by dusk Thursday night along the entire parade route.
Unfortunately, the “reserved” spots left many spectators wondering where to go. Simple mathematics can explain the dilemma.
The parade route is 2.8 miles long, which equates to 14,784 feet, or 29,568 feet when you consider that spectators line both sides of the road.
With an estimated 22,000 spectators, this equates to only 1.3 feet, or 16 inches of frontage on the parade route.
Frontage is a must for good visibility, and access to handouts that range from candy to coupons to T-shirts, bananas, and Frisbees.
Most of the tarps aligning the parade route measure 8×10 feet or larger. So, the “reserved tarps” end up commandeering 2 feet, or 24 inches, per person, which limits parade front capacity to 14,784 people.
This leaves 7,216 people without parade frontage; many of them show up early only to be greeted by tarps and blankets everywhere. A number of verbal assaults between “tarpers” and “non-tarpers” were recorded in the hours before the parade but no arrests were made.
To help alleviate pre-parade tension, “Tarps for Indonesia”, a new charity, is being formed in Peachtree City. The mission of TFI is to collect tarps and blankets for flood victims in Indonesia.
TFI will be organizing a collection initiative next year in conjunction with other Peachtree City Fourth of July celebrations.
Anyone wishing to donate tarps or blankets to TFI should leave them on the shoulder of Peachtree Parkway on July 3rd next year. Anyone interested in joining TFI or volunteering to assist with tarp/blanket pickup should contact at Russ Allen at 678-215-1840.
Russ Allen
Peachtree City, Ga.
