All hands on chairs

This year’s Balboa Island parade on Sunday will include appearances by U.S. Rep. John Campbell in a vintage 1911 Stoddard automobile and a water show visible from the Balboa Island bridge courtesy of the Orange County Harbor Patrol, but the highlight of the beloved community event for the past eight years has been the Patio Chair Drill Team.

Sunday will be the last time the team marches down Marine Avenue twirling its plastic patio chairs like batons. Organizer and founder of the group Maridee Banaf is calling it quits, she said this week.

“It really has been fun, and it’s sad it’s an end to an era, but I think it’s time,� Banaf said.

Banaf started the team in 2001 with the idea that it would be fun to put a twist on the old-fashioned parade drill team by replacing batons with plastic patio deck chairs. The crowd cheered and laughed when the team danced to the song “Summer Nights� from the musical “Grease� in its first year. A new tradition was born.

The long hours of work that go in to putting on the annual show are just too much for her to shoulder anymore, Banaf said. She also has problems finding volunteers willing to put in the long hours it takes to practice.

Banaf is willing to pass the baton, or patio chair, to someone else if they want to buy the rights to the patio chair drill team name, which she’s had copyrighted, and carry on the tradition.

This year the group of volunteer drill team members will dance to the tune of “Love Shack� by the B-52s. The five-minute routine will be the longest the group has attempted since its inception, a swan song of sorts.

“It’s that small-town atmosphere that is so great about it,� Banaf said. “You turn on to Marine Avenue and you get that adrenaline rush. The crowd is so appreciative and all our hard work has paid off.�

The team has been sponsored every year since 2002 by the Village Inn. The Marine Avenue tavern and restaurant buys T-shirts for the team each year.

“We love them, they’re awesome,� said Trudy Hayes, manager of the Village Inn.

The Patio Chair Drill Team has become synonymous with the Balboa Island Parade over the years.

“I’ll be sad to see it go,� said Carolyn Carr, publisher of the Island Breeze newsletter. “It’s a very upbeat thing. It’s too bad she can’t find someone to take her place.�

This year’s Balboa Island Parade also will include appearances from Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach and Sheriff Sandra Hutchens, Mayor Edward Selich and other members of the Newport Beach City Council. This year, a U.S. Navy band from San Diego will lead the parade. Seven Pearl Harbor survivors also will make appearances, as well as local marching bands from area high schools.

With almost 100 exhibits, the parade will start from Bayside Drive and wind its way over the Balboa Island bridge and down Marine Avenue for about two blocks. In its 16th year, the tiny parade began as a celebration of a new fire station on the island.

“The parade is small town, Norman Rockwell, USA, and that’s why people love it,� said parade chairman Ralph Rodheim.

If You Go

 The 2009 Balboa Island Parade will begin 11 a.m. Sunday at Bayside Drive, continuing over the Balboa Island bridge and down Marine Avenue.

 The Balboa Island bridge will be closed from 10:45 a.m. to 1 p.m.

 This year’s parade will include appearances from the San Diego U.S. Navy band, U.S. Rep. John Campbell and a water show put on by the Orange County Harbor Patrol visible at 11 a.m. from the Balboa Island bridge.