The city of Marietta, Ga., holds an annual Fourth in the Park celebration. It includes a parade, free live concerts, museum tours, arts and crafts show, food, carnival games and fireworks finale. The Cobb County 9-1-1 center is located in the city limits of Marietta, and the parade route passes in front of the comm center. “After many years of watching the parade from the window,” says Linda Davis, 9-1-1 operations manager, “we thought it would be a fun activity for the public education team to be involved with.”

Photo Courtesy Linda Davis, 9-1-1 operations manager, Cobb County 9-1-1

According to Davis, the parade float was the culmination of several days of work by members of the 9-1-1 Public Education Team.

 “The city hosts many events, such as arts and crafts days, and we have set up a booth to pass out educational materials to the community. This is the first year we have had a float in the parade,” says Davis. “We saw the parade as another way to be involved in the community. When I first proposed the idea, I wasn’t sure how well it would be received. However, the day after the parade people were already asking about next year. We had 11 education team members who worked on the float at various times during the week before the 4th. We invited any employee in our center to walk or ride the day of the parade, and nine employees and 11 family members chose to participate. They rode the float or walked alongside. Red E. Fox was a crowd pleaser, and Cobb County 9-1-1 was honored later in the day with the presentation of the Kids’ Choice award.”

According to the city’s website, the Marietta Freedom Parade includes 110 entries, 2,000 participants and an estimated 30,000 spectators. Entries included marching units from the city of Marietta, Air National Guard Band of the South, civic organizations, beauty queens, scouts and local businesses.

The end of the parade marked the start of the festival. Food concessions, arts and crafts and carnival provided plenty to do for the whole family.