Skateboard parade to be held Sunday

A nontraditional parade will wind through downtown Cape Girardeau on Sunday. The typical floats and candy throwing will be replaced with skateboarders and their message, said Josh Dannenmueller, president of the Cape Girardeau Skate Park Association.

"It's just to show the positive side of skateboarding," he said. "People can come together and have fun."

Dannenmueller said the Skate Park Association is organizing a skateboarding parade to celebrate the freedom to skateboard. He said he expects about 50 skateboarders to participate.

The parade is part of Go Skateboarding Day, a global skateboarding event started in 2003 by the International Association of Skateboard Companies. This is the first time skaters will be participating in Cape Girardeau, he said.

"It's not so much to promote us," he said. "It's to celebrate a holiday that would normally go unnoticed."

Participants will gather at the parking lot at Merriwether and Main streets downtown at 12:30 p.m. The parade, which begins at 1 p.m., will start down Merriwether Street before heading north on Spanish Street. The procession will continue onto North Main Street and finish at the skate park, about two blocks north of Broadway.

Dannenmueller said anyone is welcome to participate, even if they just want to walk alongside the skateboarders.

"You might have to jog eventually," he said.

The association, which gained not-for-profit status last year, has been working to raise money for new equipment. Dannenmueller said their first priority is to buy a mini ramp, but their main goal is to construct a concrete skate park.

The group will host a competition toward the end of summer on Aug. 30 at the Jackson Skate Park. On Oct. 4 it will hold another competition in Cape Girardeau.

abusch@semissourian.com

388-3627

Pertinent address:

Merriwether and Main streets, Cape Girardeau, MO