In a sea of red, white and blue, another Point Dume Fourth of July Parade rolled, walked, and jogged its way into the history books this Monday, marking the 17th year of a community tradition that has continued to grow annually.
Founded in 2000 by Dr. Steven Grahek and other Point Dume residents, the parade has grown to include hundreds of residents of all ages.
“[Last year], we counted over 100 carts, and they were all dressed up like floats,” longtime Point Dume resident Cindy O’Shea recalled. O’Shea and her husband, Tim O’Shea, have been handing out free organic lemonade along the parade route since the event began. This year, they were joined by other neighbors, friends and family from out of town.
“Cormack [O’Herlihy] brings his bubble machine, and every year he brings one more. The whole street is filled with bubbles,” Cindy described.
With dozens of decorated golf carts, classic cars, horses, scooters, bikes and more winding their way from Birdview Avenue to Cliffside Drive and up Fernhill Drive, it was hard to believe the event almost didn’t happen this year.
That’s because Grahek announced earlier this summer he would no longer be able to pull off the planning feat that is the July 4th Parade.
“I was the main organizer for 16 years,” Grahek recalled. “Alice Carpenter and her daughter Rebecca have been involved every year — she’s a big booster of getting everyone out.
“The last few years, my daughter’s in college and she hasn’t been able to be here as often as in the past,” Grahek continued, “it’s just gotten too hard for me to do.”
Hearing this, Point Dume resident and Malibu Custom Carts owner Doug Randall sprang into action.
“Unfortunately, the previous organizer of the last 16 years bowed out a month ago,” Randall described. “When I saw his posting [online], I reached out [to other residents]. There wasn’t a good response, so I took over.”
Randall, along with a core group of volunteers, had 15 days to pull together a parade to keep the tradition alive, and by all accounts it was a rousing success.
Malibu Mayor Laura Rosenthal and other council members addressed the crowd after Malibu Presbyterian Pastor Greg Hughes gave a benediction. There was also a group of Marine Corps veterans, Marine SemperFidelis MC, who took part in the parade on their motorcycles who were later honored along with other U.S. Military veterans in the crowd.
“Happy birthday, America!” Rosenthal said, thanking organizers past and present.
Music filled the air as visitors ate hot dogs and hamburgers.
Randall said he already has plans for how to improve the event in the future.
“Next year, we want to turn it into the old school Americana picnic we all remember,” Randall told The Malibu Times. The picnic, Randall said, would include classic games like tug-of-war, an egg toss and a sack race.
“A lot of kids today don’t know what [an old time picnic] is like,” Randall said, “with dads grilling up hot dogs and hamburgers, the aroma of it, the games.”
Grahek also commented on the Americana atmosphere of the event, saying one year a visiting family from Indiana was so impressed, they said it was “more Americana than they do in Indiana.”
“It’s not what outsiders would typically expect of Point Dume, and I thought it was neat they thought that,” Grahek said.
Randall also said that both this year and in years past, a lot of the work of planning has fallen on the shoulders of “just one or two people.”
“Next year, I plan on putting it on a couple of other shoulders,” Randall laughed. There are plans to turn the committee into a 501(c)3 nonprofit.
Grahek said the parade this year was a great success, and though he was no longer planning, he was proud of what it had become and glad it would continue to thrive under Randall’s care.
“As far as I’m concerned, the sixteen years were well spent — the effort was well spent,” Grahek said. “When I was a little boy, my neighborhood did something like that, and I never forgot it. If you just make an impression on one young person, maybe they’ll grow up and live in a neighborhood somewhere and they’ll try to do the same thing. So that’s why we thought it was worth it.”
Though the parade continues to grow and evolve over time, residents both old and new can expect the beloved tradition, started by a dedicated group of Point Dume residents, to continue for years to come.
