Beautiful weather greeted paradegoers in Alexandria, Virginia, on Presidents Day to commemorate the 290th anniversary of the birth of the first U.S. president.
“George Washington is first and foremost an Alexandria citizen. He lived here for over 40 years,” said Tyler Vanice, director of the George Washington Birthday Parade.
“Every year, we don’t celebrate his time as commander-in-chief or saving the country. We’re here celebrating him as a local citizen of Alexandria,” he said.
The parade was canceled last year because of the pandemic. This year, the Schrinel family was among those in attendance, making a special trip to Old Town from Richmond.
“We came up last night. We heard about the parade, and we wanted to find a cool way to celebrate the president’s birthday — George Washington’s Birthday,” Amy Schrinel said.
Also making a day of it were Alexandria sisters Lauren and Amelia. The 9-year-old twins’ favorite part of the parade was collecting candy thrown by parade participants into the crowd, as well as all the dogs and the little cars driven round and round by the Shriners. Their mom said they enjoy going to “all” the city parades.
The parade’s grand marshals were first responders and local health care workers from the city’s three largest health care providers — INOVA, Goodwin House Incorporated and Woodbine.
“And they are representing all of the health care workers here in the city,” said Jeanne Jacob, who is on the George Washington birthday celebration committee.
“And this is our opportunity to say ‘Thank you’ to them and thank you to the first responders for all that they have done for us over the past two years and they continue to do for us.”
