Lindsay SandhamAn event that started off as...

Lindsay Sandham

An event that started off as a simple bike parade and picnic more

than 30 years ago has grown into a small-scale carnival with games,

bounce houses, face-painting and a dunk tank.

The Mariners Park Fourth of July celebration kicked off at 10 a.m.

Monday with the annual bike parade. Hundreds of Newport-Mesa kids

adorned their bicycles, tricycles and wagons with balloons,

streamers, and American flags and paraded through the streets around

Mariners Elementary School.

“It’s getting bigger every year,” said Christine Smith from the

Mariners Elementary Foundation. “The parade is so big that you can’t

really ride your bike, you just walk.”

The foundation has co-sponsored the event with the city of Newport

Beach Recreation and Senior Services for the past six years. Any

proceeds from the fair go toward the foundation, which benefits the

school’s science, music, mathematics, and reading programs.

“It’s a community event for the kids,” said Dianne Wells, a

Mariners Elementary parent and foundation member. She stressed that,

although they do manage to raise a little money for the foundation,

the idea behind it is for the families to get together and celebrate

the beginning of summer.

Once the parade is over, all the action moves to the park behind

the school where participants have their choice of amusements. After

indulging in snow cones, ice cream and soda, kids run around all

morning sampling various game booths and trying their rock-climbing

skills on a giant plastic climbing apparatus.

“Barnaby the Clown,” played by Barryn Vaughn Stroh of Mission

Viejo, has been entertaining at the event for 33 years. He shares a

profusion of interactive family games he’s invented with the crowd

and hands out prizes to all the winners. Although he still uses his

clown moniker, Vaughn Stroh no longer dresses as one.

“I’m never a clown anymore,” he said. “I don’t do the clown

character because kids are frightened by the make-up.”

He said when the city first hired him all those years ago, he was

the only entertainment option at the picnic. And even with the more

recent additions of bounce houses and carnival games, the clown area

is still the mainstay of the entire event.

“Once they burn out on those toys, they still want to win prizes,”

Vaughn Stroh said.

During his nonstop four-hour routine hosting and directing all the

contests -- which include a water-balloon toss, a potato-sack race,

and a hula-hoop contest -- the games the kids most enjoy are the ones

that involve their parents.

“When I ask the kids what their most favorite thing is, their

response is watching their moms and dads play,” he said. “I like to

draw out their inner child.”

Wells said the Mariners Park event is shut down by 2 p.m. so the

parents can have some down time before evening barbecues and

fireworks displays.

The annual fireworks show at the Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort

features a patriotic display of red, white and blue pyrotechnics

synchronized to the musical themes of all divisions of the United

States Armed Forces. The show follows an entire day of family fun

with live music, volleyball, horseshoes, hula-hoop and limbo

contests.

Residents who enjoy sailing and own boats festoon their vessels

for the annual Old Glory Boat Parade, hosted by American Legion Post

291 in the Newport Harbor.

Participants compete for trophies in various categories, such as

Best Decorated, Outstanding Music, Finest Costumes, and Greatest

Spirit.

The boat parade is part of an all-day event hosted by American

Legion Post 291, which features a pancake breakfast, . a hearty lunch

and a steak dinner, and live music throughout the day.