Photo by Amy Veneziano

Grand Marshall Neil Robinson, outside, salutes the crowd from a vintage car.

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Photo by Amy Veneziano

Grand Marshall Neil Robinson, outside, salutes the crowd from a vintage car.

TONASKET – Warm weather and clear skies helped bring out the crowds this Founder’s Day in Tonasket.

However, rain Sunday morning dashed circus hopes.

About 60 groups participated in an hour-long parade Saturday morning. Groups included the North Valley Hospital, county political organizations and campaigns, the Tonasket Preschool Association and marching bands from Oroville and Tonasket high schools. Horses painted up as wild cats, fairies on go-carts and a clowned-up city council also strutted their stuff down Whitcomb Avenue.

Several hundred people, age birth to 90, lined up on Whitcomb to watch, waving extra-hard as friends, family or co-workers came through.

Representatives from Tonasket’s sister city, Princeton, B.C., traveled to town to support the events and their own cowboys competing.

The Wenatchee Youth Circus, scheduled to perform Sunday, June 1, was rescheduled due to rain, said Chamber of Commerce member and organizer Julie Alley.

“There were a lot of disappointed kids,” she said.

The circus arrived and began to set up at the football field before deciding the ground wasn’t stable enough.

It has tentatively been rescheduled for 1:30 p.m. June 15 at the field for the Father’s Day Fly-In, Alley said.

There were also several varying demonstrations up and down Whitcomb. They included Tae Kwon Do, belly dancing and canoe carving. The band Hippies on Vacation played at the newly erected Day Park Gazebo and kids bounced in a moon walk set up there. The hospital and Co-Op also held open houses.

The parade winners were, in the commercial division: Similkameen Adventures with first, Tonasket Interiors with second and Home Depot with third. In the miscellaneous division, the Sweet Potato Queens took first and Leon Louis and a Traditional Canoe took second.

In horse mounted groups, the Okanogan County Cattlemen took first and the U.S. Border Patrol Mounted Unit took second.

In floats, the Oroville May Festival float took first and the Ark took second.

In the classic car division, Let’s Go to the Hop took first, the 1956 Ford Skyliner Convertible owned by Tony and Penny Smith took second and the classic car for the Tonasket Eagles took third.

In the marching band unit, the Tonasket Tiger marching band took first, the Tonasket Middle School band took second and the Oroville Elementary School band took third.

In the community divison, the City of Tonasket took first, Princeton, B.C.’s city float took second and the North Valley Hospital District took third.

In the royalty division, Okanogan County Fair Queen Devon Pfitzer took first and Okanogan Washington Queen Tarina Kaaland took second. In mounted rodeo royalty, Omak Stampede Queen Paige Davisson took first, Nespelem Rodeo Queen Ashlee Abrahamson and Princess Ravina Pakootas took second and Okanogan Junior Rodeo Royalty Queen Sonnie Crossland and Princess Tiffany Mannikko took third.

In the church group division, the of the Brethren 300th Anniversary took first and the Chesaw Community Bible Church took second.

The Queen’s Choice was Home Depot and the judge’s choice was Similkameen Adventures.