Parade

U.S. Rep. Bob Brady (D., Pa.) on Wednesday is set to announce a "preliminary round of funding" for his Greater Philadelphia Traditions Fund, a nonprofit he helped create that will give money to the Mummers and other groups to pay for costs imposed by the city. His fund-raising efforts were driven by a Nutter administration policy of charging parade and festival organizers for expenses. - Miriam Hill

Memorial Day, the seasonal marker heralding the beginning of the warm- weather season, was ushered in with plenty of song and spirit in Bensalem. A parade featuring string bands, the Bensalem High School Band, the Crossmen Drum and Bugle Corps and antique cars impressed holiday crowds that were gathered Monday along a 1.5-mile stretch on Bristol Pike.

The Mummers parade was a unique form of New Year celebration in Philadelphia neighborhoods for more than a century before it was officially recognized by the city in 1901. And for generations, the New Year's Day festivities were never postponed. During the first 50 years that the parade was an organized event, it was postponed only nine times; during the next 20 years, nine times and during the last 10 years, six times. The weather in Philadelphia has not changed that much; it is the Mummers' refusal to march at the slightest sign of inclement weather that has changed.

The holiday shopping season in Upper Darby has gotten off to a rousing start, with Santa arriving on a fire truck to join an assortment of bands and marchers in the annual pre-Thanksgiving parade. Hundreds of shoppers and children, some wrapped in blankets and clutching balloons, lined 69th Street on Saturday to watch the parade featuring the American Legion Post 214 color guard, Greek dancers from St. Demetrios Church in Upper Darby, local school bands and the Archer-Epler Junior Musketeers.

America's oldest active military unit, Troop A of the Pennsylvania National Guard, will lead America's newest heroes, the veterans of Operation Desert Storm, in a Camden County-sponsored parade in Cooper River Park tomorrow. The parade, which is being organized by the Camden County Board of Freeholders' Veterans Welcome Home Committee, will begin at 1 p.m. at Cuthbert Boulevard and North Park Boulevard, and proceed one mile down North Park to Curtis Stadium for a medley of patriotic songs and speeches.

In this year of the Constitution's bicentennial, Delaware County communities are offering almost an embarrassment of riches in terms of activities to mark Independence Day. Committees in the communities listed below have spent many months planning a variety of events. All events listed below are scheduled for Saturday. Aldan: Starting at 11 a.m., the parade will begin at Providence Road and Woodlawn Avenue, ending at the borough park at Stister Avenue. Afterward, there will be games, pony rides and refreshments.

It's the 10th anniversary for Philadelphia's Africamericas Festival, and five will get you 10 that this year's parade will be better than last year's. That's because last year's parade didn't happen. "It was a rough decision from an emotional and an artistic perspective," festival founder and artistic director Kofi Asante said at the time. Asante blamed money and management problems for the fizzled parade, and vowed to take the next year to "re-strenghthen the festival and plan for a 10th-anniversary celebration in 1995 that will put Philadelphia on the map. " It looks as if Asante and his co-planners have kept the promise.

The Darby Borough Democratic Party is planning a June 17 "parade" to protest various police and council actions, and is seeking police help in directing traffic. During a committee meeting of the Borough Council Wednesday night, council member Robert Mawhinney disclosed that borough Democratic Chairman Charles Sanders had requested police assistance in a May 18 letter to Police Chief Robert Smythe. The letter says, in part: "We, the Democratic Party of Darby Borough, in light of recent events in Darby Borough, have decided to have a parade to offer a message of our objections to these events.

Zion Spearman tried not to laugh as a costume artist smeared white make-up over his face and painted his lips gold. The 10-year-old noticed a box of red foam clown noses on a table at the Sheridan Hotel in Center City, where participants in the annual Thanksgiving Day parade gathered in the pre-dawn hours to prepare for their march. "Do we get the ones that squeak?" he asked. Zion was one of 22 children who led the first crew of clowns in the city's 92nd annual parade Thursday.