Fountain Hills Friday: Thanksgiving Day Parade
Now that we have reached the month of November, Thanksgiving begins to slip into everyone’s minds. In Fountain Hills, Thanksgiving isn’t just about turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing; the Thanksgiving Parade has always been center stage. Taking center stage in the parade this year will be Sam Dorman, USA Olympic diver, as the Grand Marshal.
The Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce announced the Grand Marshal on Wednesday via the Fountain Hills Times after a fun “Clue Contest” on Facebook to have followers guess who they believed the Grand Marshal to be after a few clues were released. One lucky participant won the Clue Contest, and was awarded a full pizza party from local Chamber member, Little Caesars.
The Grand Marshal this year comes at a perfect time, riding the energy from the summer Olympics in Rio de Janiero. Dorman, along with his diving partner Michael Hixon won the silver medal. He is an Arizona born athlete, and grew up right here in the Valley, but called Tempe “home”. His father was a coach and P.E. teacher, so he naturally gravitated toward an athletic lifestyle by being involved in sports.
After starting to dive at the age of eight, he became inspired by many of the sports’ “Greats”, such as Mark Bradshaw and Joona Puhakka. He was driven to follow in their footsteps.
Before taking the Olympics by storm, he joined University of Miami’s diving team, and competed in collegiate meets as a Hurricane. He broke his coach Ableman’s NCAA record en route to a NCAA championship.
The road to Rio was long, but after missing the gold medal by only 4.11 points, Dorman and Hixon secured the silver. They plan on continuing to compete together as partners and have their sights set on Tokyo 2020.
The Fountain Hills Chamber is thrilled to have such a great Arizona athlete and role model participate in the Thanksgiving Day Parade. This will only add to the excitement that the event brings to town on the holiday.
There is still room for entries to participate in the parade. All registrations can be filled out online, and are due Sunday, November 6. Registration can be found here.