Both Latah County political parties will be represented in the 103rd Annual Homecoming Parade Saturday at 10 a.m.
“Homecoming is a big event for the University of Idaho and it’s good for us to be able to support that and let people from around the state know how our local folks support Homecoming,” said Democratic Sen. Dan Schmidt from Idaho’s Sixth District. “We’re going to have people there marching, waving and carrying banners.”
He said the fundamental thing about a parade is it’s not conducive to communication.
“You’re standing there and waving it’s not like you can really have a conversation with people, but it is important for constituents to know that you’re there, and you’re interested in community events,” Schmidt said.
He said it’s important to make that presence.
Schmidt said the Latah County Democrat’s presence would be similar to last year but bigger because it is an election year with more people and more signs.
Parade coordinator for the Latah County Democrats Kurt Obermayr said the election year really ups the enthusiasm.
Obermayr said they have handouts, Mardi Gras necklaces, a couple of vehicles and all the local Democratic candidates will march along with 20 or 30 other people. He said the Moscow Peace Band will also march with them.
The Latah County Republicans are also involved in the parade.
“At the Latah County GOP meeting we talked about how we really wanted to support the Vandals,” said Aleta Sonnenberg. “Historically, Vandals came in Viking ships, so we decided we would build a Viking ship.”
Sonnenburg, the ship’s designer, said they have been working on it for about a week.
She said she designed and built models to make sure everything would fit before starting construction using plywood. Sonnenburg said the ship is 28 feet long and almost 12 feet high. It has 22 shields — 11 on each side — painted black and gold to represent the Vandals.
“It is very elaborate. She did a fantastic job and we so appreciate her hard work and it is going to look great,” said Cindy Agidius, Republican candidate for the State Legislature.”We’ve had an average of about 6-10 people working on it at a time, anyone who has had some time has just shown up with tools in hand ready to get the job done.”
Aaron Wolfe can be reached at arg-news.uidaho.edu