- Date
- 2001-07-04
- Kind
- Celebration
- Carried out by
- Beaver Island Chamber of Commerce
- Followed by
- Beaver Island holds a post-9/11 2002 Fourth of July Parade honoring first responders
- Eras
- Modern era
- Concepts
- celebrationcommunitytourism
- Within
- Beaver Island
Summary
The Beaver Island Chamber of Commerce hosted a Fourth of July parade on July 4, 2001, under a Board-selected theme honoring the island’s veterans. The Beacon calls it “the biggest and best ever,” with 43 floats, marching groups, and individual performers, and the largest crowd on record; the same holiday period drew several family reunions to the island, some of which joined the parade.
Program
The Chamber Board chose “Honoring Beaver Island’s Veterans” unanimously as the year’s theme. Parade Coordinator Lisa Gillespie set participant line-up for 2:00 p.m. and the parade start for 2:30 p.m., a later time than in immediately preceding years, explicitly chosen to give Golf Tournament contestants and Chamber food-service members time to reach the parade. The Beaver Island Youth Consortium again hosted the carnival, sited next to the Convent and beginning after the parade with a dunk tank and new prizes; the two townships again hosted the harbor fireworks, beginning just after dusk. The August report’s float list opens with marching veterans and an Island Airways fly-over, followed by the Fire Department, Police Department, and Emergency Medical Service, then dozens of named veteran-saluting entries from businesses and families, including Hodgson’s “Thanks 133 B.I. Vets,” Central Michigan University’s “(Is)Land of the Free…Home of the Brave!”, and the Iron Ore Bay Association naming a specific veteran, Kurt Schubert. Four families joined the “long train” of the parade as part of reunions that month, including a seventeen-descendant gathering of James Jesse Strang’s family and a roughly hundred-person reunion of Anthony O’Donnell’s Arranmore-descended kin, the latter donating family artifacts and a $5,000 gift to the Beaver Island Historical Society’s building fund during the same visit.
Evidence limits
No numeric attendance or proceeds figure is given beyond the report’s description of “the biggest crowd ever” and “uncountable crowd”; these are qualitative newspaper characterizations, not counts. The float list names dozens of individual entries but is presented as a partial illustration (“can’t begin to describe the work and imagination”) rather than a complete roster.
Open questions
- What was the actual attendance or crowd estimate, if any figure was ever produced beyond the Beacon’s qualitative description?
- Did the family reunions that joined the 2001 parade become a recurring pattern in later years?
See also
Sources
- Announces the parade "Hosted by the Beaver Island Chamber of Commerce" under the theme "Honoring Beaver Island's Veterans," selected "By unanimous vote" of the Chamber Board, with participant line-up at 2:00 p.m. and step-off at 2:30 p.m.; names Lisa Gillespie as Parade Coordinator and states the later start, versus earlier years, was chosen so Golf Tournament contestants and food-service Chamber members would have time to reach the parade. The carnival is listed as "Hosted by the B.I. Youth Consortium" next to the Convent, and fireworks as "Hosted by the Townships," beginning in the harbor just after dusk. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2001-07_Beaver-Beacon
- The held thirty-four-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 2001-07_Beaver-Beacon
- Reports the completed parade as "the biggest and best ever," with "43 floats, marching groups and individual performers" and the "biggest crowd ever," giving record applause. Lists dozens of named entries, most saluting veterans (e.g. Hodgson's "Thanks 133 B.I. Vets," CMU's "(Is)Land of the Free...Home of the Brave!", Iron Ore Bay Assn.'s "Our own Vet: Kurt Schubert"). A companion item, "History in the News," reports that four families joined the parade as part of reunions that month, including a 17-person gathering of James Jesse Strang descendants and a roughly hundred-person reunion of Anthony O'Donnell's Arranmore-descended kin. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2001-08_Beaver-Beacon
- The held thirty-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 2001-08_Beaver-Beacon
Added 3 August 2026. Recent changes
Cite this article
Beaver Island Archive, “Beaver Island holds a record 2001 Fourth of July Parade honoring veterans”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/events/beaver-island-fourth-of-july-2001/, accessed [date], citing The Beaver Beacon, July 2001, "Fourth of July Event Schedule" and "Chamber Music: The July 4th Parade." (and 3 further sources listed on the page).
Last revised 2026-08-03. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.
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