Alliance Holds Summer MLK Parade with 48 Units, Free Food

Alliance, Ohio figured out something simple: celebrating unity works better when you're not freezing.

The city held its 31st annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Parade and Celebration on August 22, ditching the traditional January date for sunshine and community connection. Hundreds of residents filled Maple Beach Park after 48 units marched through downtown.

"Martin Luther King Day is in the dead of winter here in Ohio, and it's almost guaranteed that we're going to have a snowstorm," said Maurice Hatcher, one of the volunteer organizers. "This is just good weather for us to come together and celebrate unity."

The timing works perfectly as an end-of-summer celebration. Kids just returned to school, and families grabbed one last chance to gather before fall sets in.

Organizers offered free hot dogs, chips and punch through community donations. Local food vendors turned the park into a neighborhood feast, with residents traveling from nearby streets and distant cities alike.

Autumn Smith and her boyfriend Victor Douglas brought their five children from just down the street on Pike Street. Douglas had clear priorities: fried catfish from Starrett Gattis' House of Soul and greens from Tearna Young's Sea Food-N-Eat truck.

"He's got the best fish in the city and she's got the best greens in the city," Douglas said. "It's always a good vibe. There's always new opportunities to meet new people."

Gattis learned his crispy, peppery catfish recipe from his 85-year-old great-grandmother Dora Board, who watched the parade from a relative's home nearby. He started House of Soul in a tent five years ago and now runs a food truck.

Family connections ran deep throughout the event. Young's son Robi'on Fountain parked his Cold as a Mugg truck next to hers. Gattis' mother and stepfather sold shaved ice and funnel cakes nearby.

Sunny's Take

Donna Jean Palmer drove five hours from Sunbury, picking up her mother in Dayton along the way. She brought her daughters Royal Marie, 10, and Empress Reign, 6, to see where she grew up and where she was nominated Carnation Festival queen in 2003.

The parade ended where the real celebration began. Children splashed in the water pad and bounced in inflatables while adults danced to soul music drifting from food trucks.

Rebecca Waldrup spent the parade passing out candy, then helped register voters before spotting her cousin in the crowd. Political candidates mixed with neighborhood families, vendors served recipes passed down through generations, and strangers became friends over shared plates.

Sometimes the best way to honor a legacy of unity is simply creating space for people to unite.