It was their first year as the lead-in for the Grand Parade and the Arlington Fourth of July Festival Kiddies Parade drew close to 100 children as entrants, slightly behind its scheduled start time of 4:30 p.m. on Olympic Avenue.

Kiddies Parade Chair Jonna Dickison, of the Arlington Fire Department Women’s Auxiliary, expressed the hope that the Kiddies Parade’s new date and time will prove popular enough to become a new community tradition so that the Kiddies Parade can be more fully integrated into the rest of the Arlington Fourth of July Festival’s events.

While previous years’ Kiddies Parades included award categories for groups, floats and pets, Dickison explained that this year’s Kiddies Parade has been narrowed down to its three most popular categories of costumed, patriotic and “wheels” entrants.

“With the economy, we really wanted to streamline it and scale it back a bit, especially with the expense of buying trophies,” Dickison said. “By having the Kiddies Parade right before the Grand Parade, we’re also cutting back on police expenses, since they don’t have to close the street two different times for two different events.”

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