-Staff Writer-
Marching bands, military groups and elected government officials will make their way down Atlantic Avenue during the 18th Annual Long Beach Veterans Day Parade on Saturday, Nov. 8 thanks, in part, to a social-media fundraising campaign.
Organizers of the annual event, which draws more than 10,000 spectators to north Long Beach to honor military service men and women, enlisted the help of fundraising website GoFundMe.com to solicit donations this year.
According to the site, 42 donations, totaling $7,020, were made to support the parade through the online campaign from August to October. Individuals listed anonymously and by name made donations ranging from $25 to $1,000 with the ability to spread the word through social-media websites.
Martha Thuente, the parade’s event coordinator and a member of the Long Beach Veterans Day Committee, said staging the parade costs about $45,000 a year.
While the City annually budgets about $15,000 to cover fire, police, street-sweeping and public-works services, about $30,000 a year is raised solely from corporate sponsorships, grants and private donations to pay for banners, promotional materials, an event consultant and other necessities, she said. Major contributors that continue to provide financial support include the Port of Long Beach and Edison International, Thuente said.
“We’re at a place in our history that, more than ever, we need to honor the men and women who have kept us free and have guaranteed all our rights and privileges,” she said. “That’s why we have this parade, to honor those men and women who serve.”
A committee member recommended the online campaign after a drop in funding from one of the parade’s past vendors prompted the committee to boost fundraising efforts this year, said Committee Chair Val Lerch, a former 9th District councilmember, who helped continue the parade after it was started, originally on Labor Day weekend, by former 9th District Councilmember Jerry Shultz in 1996.
“One of our vendors came to us and said, ‘I’m not really sure I can donate the time and the goods anymore with the economy and everything,'” Lerch said. “About $5,000 all of a sudden we didn’t have donated to us for services, so we immediately started looking at other funding.”
He said the parade’s committee has had to seek private donations each year to keep the parade going after the City stopped covering the entire cost because of budget constraints. Though the committee has reached its fundraising goal for this year’s parade, individuals may still make donations through the online campaign for next year, he said.
The parade’s grand marshal this year is Stephen Peck, president and CEO of U.S. Vets, considered the largest nonprofit in the nation that’s devoted to providing shelter and other services to at-risk homeless veterans.
Peck, who served as a Marine officer during the Vietnam War, was instrumental in helping the U.S. Vets open Century Villages at Cabrillo in west Long Beach in 2000. The facility is now one of 11 sites in six states and the District of Columbia that provide services to homeless veterans.
In a phone interview with the Signal Tribune, Peck, the son of famed actor Gregory Peck, said he is honored to serve as the grand marshal this year, adding that volunteer veterans have been involved in the parade for many years, often wearing U.S. Vets T-shirts, to spread awareness about available services.
“It’s a great parade, and it’s gotten some good support,” Peck said. “I’m glad to do it.”
Villages at Cabrillo has expanded its services since opening 14 years ago, now providing housing, back-to-work programs, substance-abuse counseling and a career center while partnering with local nonprofits. Today, the site houses about 550 veterans and provides services to nearly 1,000 veterans on a year-to-year basis, he said.
Peck noted that the City of Long Beach is poised to reach a goal set by the federal government to end homelessness among veterans in the city by 2015. In addition, U.S. Vets plans to construct a new building at Villages at Cabrillo in the next few years to house more homeless veterans after receiving 75 Section 8 housing vouchers provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH).
The parade’s honorary grand marshal this year is Long Beach Police Officer Eric Cornell, who, after joining the Long Beach Police Department’s (LBPD) police academy in 2008, left in the middle of training to serve in the military as part of a training deployment in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.
While awaiting orders for overseas deployment, Cornell served at the Recruit Training Command in Great Lakes, Illinois, and the Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. As a Navy master at arms who attained the rank of petty officer second class, Cornell has been awarded the National Defense Service Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and the Navy Reserve Meritorious Service Medal.
His duty stations have included the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Corona, the Naval Auxiliary Landing Field on San Clemente Island and the Naval Security Forces, Naval Base of Ventura County.Â
After returning from active duty in 2009, Cornell took a position with the LBPD in its jail division as a detention officer. In May 2013, he was selected to be part of the LBPD’s Police Academy Class #86. Cornell is currently assigned to the North Division Patrol and will complete his field training in December, according to the LBPD.
More than 100 participants, including more than a half dozen marching bands, will also be featured in this year’s parade, according to Thuente. The parade begins at 10am on Atlantic Avenue, stretching from Harding Street to 56th Street.
For more information about making a donation to the Long Beach Veterans Day Parade, visit gofundme.com/lb-veterans-day-parade or email msthuente@hotmail.com .
