By MADDY VITALE
The sun was out and Ocean City vacationers and residents were showing their true patriotic spirit with bike parades in the north and south ends of town to celebrate the Fourth of July.
At first glance, Cassie Thompson, 6, of Philadelphia looked like a bike parade veteran.
She wore red, white and blue streamers and bows on her bicycle helmet. And popping out of the sides of her bike were streamers, a couple of flags, not to mention her star-splashed shirt and pompoms.
“We were sitting on my family’s porch last night, when she said she wanted to be in the parade,” Cassie’s mom, Bernadette Bush explained.
Instead of rushing out to look for last-minute decorations for the north end Gardens Civic Association Bike Parade, the Thompsons thought of a quicker and quirkier way to create the perfect look for both Cassie and her bike.
“We took things off the table and the porch,” Cassie said with a giggle, about the Fourth of July decorations used for both her and her bike’s patriotic look.
“We’ve been coming to Ocean City our whole lives and never did the parade,” Bush noted. “This is the first one and we are making it a good one.”
Across town there was another annual tradition, the South End Bike Parade.
The parade was bigger than in prior years, with over 1,350 signed up families and friends, said Michele Gillian, executive director of the Ocean City Regional Chamber of Commerce.
Gillian explained that this year was particularly meaningful.
“This year the Parade Committee honored John Fallon for his dedication and enthusiasm to the parade,” Gillian noted.
She continued, “John was the longtime chairman of the event. He passed away last year. That parade was just a spectacular slice of hometown and heaven all in one.”
The Benners and McCormicks make the north end parade a tradition.
Jena Benner, of Naples, Fla., her daughter, Madeleine, 10, and Jena’s niece, Courtney, husband, Eddie, and their children, Bridget, 3, and Henry, 4, of Jacksonville, Fla., fly out in July to enjoy the bike parade and spend time with their relatives who live in Ocean City.
Benner grew up in Ocean City.
“The bike parade is something my family plans our trip around,” Benner said, just before the parade began. “I lived in Ocean City until I was seven, but we have always come back to be with our family.”
Hundreds of other families also enjoyed the festivities at both the north end and south end parades.
Dave Johnson, his son, Henry, 3, of Lancaster, Pa., and his niece Annabella Buchman, 13, of Hagerstown, Maryland, couldn’t wait for the north end parade to begin.
“We come every year. We love it,” Johnson said. “It is a tradition I’ve been coming to for years. My wife Angela’s family is from Ocean City.”
Annabella, who wore a patriotic outfit, complete with a headband that included streamed, added, “I like decorated my bike every year. And I like to get to the end of it in a race with my cousins. It is super cool.”
People along the parade route enjoyed watching the colorful procession of parade participants
Mayor Jay Gillian, along with First Ward Councilman Terry Crowley Jr., watched at some of the participants who zipped by in Fourth of July fashions.
“This is spectacular. What a wonderful tradition,” Gillian said. “This is what Ocean City is all about.”
Scarlett Marshall, 10, of Ocean City was at the head of the parade, alongside the Gardens Civic Association golf cart.
Scarlett designed the parade T-shirts that were given before the parade. The focus was on bicycle safety and to obey traffic and ride safely.
The north end bike parade, which began in the 1950s, makes its way through the Gardens each year. The celebration is organized by longtime Ocean City resident Duane Sonneborn.
“It’s a beautiful day. It’s a nice tradition,” Sonneborn said. “We have never had bad weather for the parade except in 2018 and even then, we just postponed it a day.”
The participants looped around the Gardens on the beautiful day with temperatures that hovered in the high 70s during the parade.
After the parades, families had the Fourth of July fireworks to marvel over, launched from a barge in the ocean near the Music Pier.
