By Anelia K. Dimitrova
View gallery of parade photos
If all the smiles and all the hand waves, and all the laughter, and all the good vibes sent in the air by all the wind instruments of all the bands, and all the cheerful acrobatics of all the dancers, and all the pedaling of the cyclists, propelling the Lions Club signature 10-person bike, and all the honks of all the float trucks celebrating local businesses and community organizations, and all the running of all the small feet, and all the stretching of all the tiny hands reaching out to catch all the tossed candy, and all the thawing popsicles flying from the floats in the sweltering heat, and all the chatter of all the moms and all the dads, and all the neighbors watching on the sidewalks – all of this fits in one smile-inducing phrase – the Sturgis Falls parade.
And here’s the kicker: If all of the energy at the Sturgis Falls parade on Saturday, June 28, could be harnessed, the City of Cedar Falls would have enough power to last the town for a whole year.
That’s hyperbole, of course, but really, the vibe of the town’s parade is worth its own hyperbolic moment, as it is well known that to put on a display of community pride of such caliber, in the midst of a weekend of fabulous and free entertainment, takes a whole year to plan, prepare and produce. That’s what makes the parade a thriving and treasured tradition.
So hats off to the countless volunteers, who have made it happen every year, for 49 years, so far. Some, like Molly Kahler, the creative soul behind so many of the Sturgis Falls logistics, who I have known for years, have become an institution with their decades-long involvement. Others, like Mitch Blanchan, who I met when reporting on the stage installation in the downtown area for Sturgis Falls, had just signed on for the first time this year.
Imagined over a conversation at the Depot restaurant downtown in the 1970s as an idea shared by three people who barely knew each other but were united in their love for Cedar Falls, today’s Sturgis Falls began as a one-day Sunday event in Overman Park in 1976, thanks to the volunteer work of Rosemary Beach, the late Judith Cutler and Thomas Klemuk. With city and business owners’ support, they came up with Sturgis Falls, naming the festival after the town’s first settler, William Sturgis. One of the pillars of the celebration, the founding volunteers vowed, would be that the entertainment would remain free, and it has.
It took “a few years” before the celebration expanded into the three-day extravaganza it is today, Rosemary Beach, 90, the only surviving founder, told me recently.
Amidst the entertainment and kid programs, some of which have evolved over time, the parade, which started several years into the history of the festival, has remained a staple of the tradition. What this means is that generations of Cedar Fallsians have grown up enjoying the parade as kids, and now, as parents and grandparents, they cherish it even more because it is their turn to share it with their little ones.
And if there is one, single distinguishing feature that stood out to me in this year’s parade, it was the joyful abundance of a beehive of little humans along the parade route.
It dawned on me that it is for them and their memories that the parade takes on such an important place in the festival’s happenings.
It is for them that a shower of sweet candy and swag flew in the direction of the watchers of all ages.
Sturgis Falls: A parade of joy and togetherness
So much goes on in a parade and in so many directions and dimensions that it is next to impossible to grasp, in the moment, the significance of every story in its tapestry.
But it is easy to see the feeling of togetherness, the sense of town pride and community belonging that brings everyone together during the homegrown display of love for the town marching along the designated route.
It is a feel-good story book whose chapters are updated every year, and new ones are added, but it always celebrates successes, lifts spirits and nurtures a sense of respect for the history of the town.
A parade is also a personal memory, as organizers, participants and watchers each get their own perspective of the event.
But as a community journalist, I make a point to walk the parade route and occasionally stop to chat with people I know and complete strangers, in order to paint, with words and images, the collective portrait of the town.
That’s another way to describe the parade – it is a collage that belongs in the gallery of the street, whose hues and shapes come to life on the canvas of real time, with the help of real people, who speak and act unscriptedly, elated to be a part of the history-in-the-making of their town.
Band members honor Dennis Downs, grand marshal of the 2025 Sturgis Falls by playing 1892 march
Right before the parade, I saw Rosemary Beach, one of the founding mothers of the event. In 50 years, Rosemary later told me, she had only missed one Sturgis Falls celebration.
“I don’t know how it grew, but it kept growing,” she said.
When I spotted her, Rosemary was sitting right next to another living legend of Sturgis Falls, Dennis Downs, the retired municipal band director, and his lifelong partner, Mary Bozik.
That’s when I witnessed one of the most touching displays of respect and love before the official start of the parade.
It happened when a group of musicians from the Cedar Falls Municipal Band quickly descended upon their now retired director. Standing in the street, the musicians, under the direction of their current conductor, Ken Henze, showed their appreciation for Dennis by performing a piece called “Our Director.” Composed in 1862 by F. E. Bigelow, to commemorate the work of the director of the Ashland Brass Band, Joseph Morrisette, the march was a fitting tribute to Dennis’ contributions to band music in town.
Band members Judy Larkin and Kelly McCormick came up with the idea to surprise Dennis with the march and so they did.
It took one minute and 23 seconds for the musicians to play the piece, but for Dennis, the emotions that it evoked will last for the rest of his days.
It was an intimate, yet public moment, which captured so aptly the admiration Dennis so richly deserves.
He was the grand marshal for the 2025 parade, a distinction he had earned with decades of dedication and advocacy as the longtime municipal band director and for his vision and persistence in championing, among other things, the fundraising for the construction of the Overman Park Band Shell, one of the permanent stages in town.
During the improvised “Our Director” piece, Dennis kept the tempo of the march with his right hand and then, with his cane. When the music ended, several band members hugged Dennis, who was visibly moved.
Second Marine Aircraft Wing Band, from Cherry Point, North Carolina, pose for a picture
Not far from where Dennis was seated, members of the Second Marine Aircraft Wing Band, from Cherry Point, North Carolina, were getting ready for the parade. Conducting that band on one occasion several years ago was one of the most cherished memories for Dennis, of all the Sturgis Falls celebrations he had attended, as recounted in the official Sturgis Falls program.
Near the Marine Band, members of local Boy Scouts from Pack 3044, Pack 3055, Troop 55, Troop 99 and Troop 118, were gathering for the parade, but they also wanted to honor a tradition they started several years ago – having their picture taken with the Marine band.
Dignitaries at the parade
Then, I hurried off to the head of the parade, the dignitaries lined up. Among them were council members, the mayor, Black Hawk supervisors and state legislators as well as the host and hostess of the parade, Scott and Sarah Gall, the owners of the Runner’s Flat, the scholarship winner, Benjamin Ritter, and the winners of the talent show from Friday night as well as UNI’s mascots TC and TK.
In the minutes before the parade got rolling, there wasn’t much to do, so everyone greeted each other and posed for pictures.
Reece Peterson, the father of Councilwoman-at-large Hannah Crisman, sat behind the wheel of a blue vintage 1964 Buick Skylark, a special wedding gift for Hannah and her husband, Matt. In short order, Matt took the passenger seat next to his father-in-law and Hannah sat in the back, their son, Freddie, on her lap.
Near the front of the lineup was a shiny 1963 Cadillac convertible, with the family of Sen. Dave Sires, a former councilman, and his grandkids eager to get going.
As soon as Black Hawk County Deputy Sheriff Andy Briggs, who waited on a side street on his motorcycle, gave a signal, the dignitaries’ vehicles started their slow move forward. The watchers on the sidewalk cheered and clapped.
Mayor Danny Laudick, whose car was near the front of the lineup, did not hop on the back, as is common practice. Instead, he ran along the route, dropping off candy to kids along the way, accompanied by cheers, “Run, Danny, run.”
The parade route: Seats to the best show in town
The best part of a parade are the people – those who make it happen and those who watch it happen.
West and East High School cadets from the Color Guard carried the flags, with Cadet Zechariah Scott carrying the Iowa flag and Cadet Colten Lawrence carrying the American flag.
Behind the high school cadets was the Marine band, which performed while they marched, followed by a group from The Guy W. Iversen Cedar Falls AMVETS Post 49, Sons of AMVETS, the Ladies Auxiliary and AMVETS Riders and many of their family members who carried a big American flag. It takes 20 people to cover all the handles that hold the flag, Post Commander Mitch Lindeberg told me afterwards. That flag also takes part in the July 4th parade in Central City, as a matter of tradition, he added.
Along the route were the mascots, UNI’s TC and his cat sister, TK, riding in the dignitaries lineup, but then there was the CFU mascot atop the municipal utility’s float, and then there was Fable, the smart fox mascot of the Cedar Falls Public Library who opted for a healthy walk during the parade.
The decorated floats, themed with the motto of the festival, “Ready, Set, Summer!” filled the streets with jubilant supporters, many of them moms and dads who work in the respective businesses.
Walking beside the adults were also just as many kids, who ran up to the sidewalks to deliver candy to younger kids watching the parade.
Entertaining the town for the next 90 minutes under the scorching sun were neighborhood groups with all-terrain vehicles; area business and church floats with oversized displays and music; gray-haired former classmates sitting atop trailers with their graduation year posted on a sign, marking the irreversible march of time; milestone anniversaries, like the big cake announcing the centennial birthday of MercyOne; the high school champions and the band; the Cedar Falls Municipal Band playing in its traditional float, among many others.
The front row to this display of town pride belonged to the most important citizens in town – the little kids, who sat on the edge of the curb, or on small blankets, ready to pounce on the candy. Their plastic bags filled up quickly and many of them sampled their gifts on the spot.
In a second row of watchers, moms and dads sat in lawn chairs, and one small baby napped, resting her head on a woman’s shoulder. Pups also hung around their humans, and their ears perked when other pups from the Humane Society parade float walked by.
On some lawns and porches, lawn chairs provided comfort and tree-lined streets gave shelter from the sun but only to the point where the parade hit Main Street. Along that stretch it was hard to find respite from the sun but for a scattering of hand-held umbrellas.
At one of the corners, two enterprising kids had put up a lemonade stand and about 40 minutes in, they had a lot to show for their effort.
Watching the parade was one of my former students Dana Derflinger, with his family, so I caught up with him about how far he has come as a professional and a father since graduation. Also along the parade route was Ronelle Langley, the widow of late longtime mayor Jon Crews. Next to her was her brother-in-law Carty Crews, who had come for Sturgis from South Carolina, and went out for a 3-hour bike ride right after the parade, making use of the storied area trails.
“My brother-in-law was like a kid in a candy shop,” Ronelle told me. “So happy to be back, see all, including his classmates.”
Longtime Sturgis Falls emcee Gary Kroeger reflects on the parade from afar
One prominent Cedar Falls renaissance man was not as lucky to attend the parade, albeit not by a fault of his own.
Gary Kroeger, who gained national fame with his 1982 debut on Saturday Night Live (SNL), the late-night NBC comedy show that marked its half-century anniversary earlier this year, was headed to Cedar Falls to emcee the parade and take part in his 50th class reunion, but ended up stranded at the airport in Philadelphia for two days due to weather-related conditions. So he missed Sturgis Falls.
In town, he has left an indelible legacy with his performances at the Cedar Falls Community Theatre for two decades, and also with the creation of Figaro, Figaro on Main Street in town, an Italian-themed restaurant where arias and hits from Sinatra to Dean Martin, were sang acapella by Gary and his staff at the request of the guests.
Gary had recently moved his family to Vermont, but planned to keep his duties at the Sturgis parade, which he had emceed from 2004 until 2015.
But he found some comfort in reflecting on the good memories from afar.
“My favorite part of the parade was interviewing the young parade-goers who lined the street about what they loved about parades,” he told me. “It never failed to be entertaining. Almost as much fun are the class reunion floats. I tease the classes relentlessly about growing old but it’s all in good fun and I know they enjoy the laughs.
“And as much as anything I loved the whole morning,” he continued. “The people, the park, the sunshine (usually) and the festive atmosphere. I always felt at Sturgis Falls that I was at the center of the universe at least for that day.”