Main Street to march for Memorial Day

LAKEWOOD RANCH — Around the high-top tables at Wolves Head Pizza & Wings, a team of organizers begins a calm yet slightly frantic conversation, as they review notes, to-do lists and deadlines.

Organizer Lori Ruth, associate publisher of the East County Observer, begins the meeting with good news: Lakewood Ranch Main Street’s property manager has already arranged for a veterans VIP seating tent and stage for the upcoming Tribute to Heroes Memorial Day Parade.

Within just three weeks, Ruth, parade co-founder John Breiner and volunteer Carlene Smith have assembled a team of about a dozen other volunteers and resurrected the May 24 parade, which almost was canceled.

“It’s the town literally coming together,” Ruth said. 

Breiner, owner of Wolves Head Pizza and one of the parade’s founders, started the parade with Lakewood Ranch resident Gene Sweeney approximately six years ago to honor military veterans. At the time, Breiner owned Ed’s Tavern on Lakewood Ranch Main Street, making the venue an ideal location for the start-up parade.

Although he sold his business last year, Breiner had made plans for the parade to continue. But the departure in late February of longtime Lakewood Ranch Community Activities Corp. Director Lori Basilone, who had played a key role in organizing the parade, left the sixth-year event in limbo.

“Our group went from 20 to two,” Breiner said. “We decided, regardless, we would continue.”

“We didn’t want it to fail,” Smith said. “It’s something the community really looks forward to, and we don’t have many parades out here. We’re limited in what we can do.”

Organizers had planned to move the event to Greenbrook Adventure Park so it could expand, but Ruth advocated for its return to Lakewood Ranch Main Street. Fellow organizers agreed. Main Street merchants were thrilled with the decision and offered financial help and other assistance to keep the parade going.

Ruth also dug up Basilone’s old contacts and checklists and began delegating assignments to a growing team of volunteers.

“That’s really how we’ve gotten here,” Breiner said. “Everybody’s got a stack (of things to do.)”

Ruth said canceling the parade wasn’t an option. The parade serves as a reminder to stand as a country, not as individuals.

“It’s for our Armed Services,” said Ruth, whose father served in the U.S. Army during World War II. “We have no idea the sacrifices they put up with, and then they go over bravely and come back differently. They are the heroes in the biggest sense of the word. I don’t think there is anybody who’s braver. And it’s not just them; it’s their families too.”