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Today's 2011 West Seattle Grand Parade hosted by the West Seattle American Legion Post 160 drew crowds, cheers, and comments by many satisfied with Seattle's weather saying, "At least it's not 105 degrees like they have in Texas." The sun added sparkle to the floats and costumes of many colors, although purple, gold, and green seemed to dominate. There were 56 official entries on the program, but several more seemed to squeeze in.

"This is the biggest birthday party you've ever seen in King County. I'm 85 years old today," said Art Peters, who, with wife Gloria were the Parade Grand Marshals, driven by daughter Connie Davolt in her convertible. Both Peters' wore Navy uniforms. " He served in the Navy in WWII and Korea. Gloria was in the Naval Reserves. She is 86.

A perfect day for a perfect parade," said Hi-Yu Queen Kelsey Bells from atop the float. "I'm so excited."

Earlier, and starting closer to the Junction was the West Seattle Rotary Kids Parade which featured music for the first time with the Junior All City Marching Band.

Jack and Bettie Hanning camped out in a shady spot in front of Hiawatha Park. He founded Hanning Realty and Olympic Escrow in the West Seattle Junction. He is a West Seattle High School grad, class of '43, Bettie the class of '45. Jack was president of both the Lions Club and Hi-Yu. He had the Wizard of Oz Hi-Yu float in 1972 that won awards, and is pictured on the post office exterior wall mural.

Here are the results of the judging in the parade as supplied by Dave Vague:

The West Seattle Grand Parade went off today with all the pagentry and chaos that one would expect. This was one of the largest crowds along the parade route I have seen in years and we were blessed with the perfect of weather. This year the parade almost didn't come off, except for the generosity of our two sponsors - the West Seattle Christian Church and the West Seattle Y, along with a number of other West Seattlites who also donated.

Although I think the people along the parade route were the real winners, here are the winning entries in each category.

West Seattle Grand Parade
2011 Parade Entry Winners

Floats
Legion Trophy - Marysville Strawberry Festival, MaryFest, Inc. “Berrywood”
Alki Trophy - Sequim Irrigation Festival
Judges Trophy - Puyallup Daffodil Festival “Spirit of Adventure”
Festival Trophy - Port Orchard “Fathoms of Fun”

Performing Acts
1st – Seattle Seafair Pirates
2nd – Lake City Vigilantes
3rd Evergreen Tang Soo Do Academy

Clowns/Comics
1st – Seattle Seafair Clowns
2nd – Keystone Kops
3rd – West Seattle Shrine Club Clowns

Marching Bands
1st – Calgary Round-Up Band
2nd - Kennedy Catholic High School Band
3rd – Pacific Northwest Drum Line

Commercial
1st – Luna Park Café
2nd – Seattle Public Utilities
3rd – Hadlock Towing

Cars & Antique Cars
1st – Last Resort Fire Department
2nd – Pacific Northwest DeLorean Club
3rd – Seattle Lutheran Schools

Drill Teams – Jr
1st – Baby Dangerettes Drill Team
2nd – “Jr. Electronetts” Babynetts Drill Team
3rd – Emerald City Divas Drill Team

Drill Teams – Sr
1st – Seattle Chinese Community Girls Drill Team
2nd – Sweet Mahogany Drill Team
3rd – Electronetts Drill Team & Drum Squad

Community
1st – Sustainable West Seattle
2nd – Hope Lutheran Gospel Outreach
3rd –Cub Scout Troops of West Seattle

Overall Winners
1st – Seattle Schools All-City Marching Band
2nd – Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish & School
3rd – Marysville Strawberry Festival Float