It's become known, informally, as Queen Anne Day.
This Saturday, July 16, a series of outdoor events will once again unfold across the Hill, starting with the Crown of Queen Anne Fun Run and Walk. A parade, a sidewalk sale and community picnic will follow.
The weather gods, as the weekend nears, appear to be smiling.
This is the 20th year for the Queen Anne Helpline's Fun Run and Walk. Participants and race-day registrants will assemble at Queen Anne Lutheran Church, Eighth West and West McGraw Street as early as 7 a.m. The schedule calls for walkers to leave the starting line at Fifth Avenue West and West Halladay at 8 a.m. with the runners taking off 20 minutes later.
The flat, scenic 3.3-mile route makes a circuit around the top of the Hill and finishes at Coe School. Preregistration takes place Thursday and Friday, noon to 8 p.m. at Metropolitan Market, 1908 Queen Anne Ave. N.
The Fun Run and Walk, which benefits the Helpline, is a family-oriented event that draws up to 400 participants and some 50 volunteers. After the runners and walkers have crossed the finish line, they traditionally reassemble at Queen Anne Lutheran for refreshments, an awards ceremony and a drawing for prizes donated by Queen Anne businesses.
Then comes the parade.
Staging for the event will begin at the McClure Middle School parking lot at 11 a.m. with the parade getting underway at 11:30 a.m. The route follows the boundaries of the Queen Anne Community Center complex, heading south on First Avenue West, then making a right turn east on West Blaine. Another right turn on Third Avenue West takes the parade north, where it turns right, or west, on West Howe to Second Avenue West and back to the McClure parking lot.
Expect decorated trikes, bikes, wagons, drill teams, bands, martial-arts demonstrations, the Ballard Eagles Drill Team and the All-City Marching Band. Local grocery stores have formed their own shopping-cart drill teams for the event, and members of the Queen Anne Chamber of Commerce plan to sweep up, literally, the rear of the parade.
The Queen Anne Helpline and Queen Anne Chamber of Commerce sponsor the parade with support from the Queen Anne Merchants Association.
Parade organizer Suzanne Mc-Callum, Helpline assistant director, said the parade, while not overwhelming in length, should last a solid hour.
"We have a lot of people with short legs," she noted.
Meanwhile, upper Queen Anne merchants will hold their annual sidewalk sale.
The community picnic will take place at the ballfield adjacent to the Queen Anne Community Center from noon to 2 p.m.
Free hot dogs and burgers are on the menu. Information booths (including a Humane Society area with adoptable pets), face painting, snow cones and the steel drum band Bakra Bata are also on the bill.
For more information on any or all of these events, call the Queen Anne Helpline at 282-1540.
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