Poway Rotary Parade

At nine on a Saturday morning in September, the entries formed near Pomerado Road start east on Poway Road and keep moving until they reach Bowron Road. Portions of Pomerado, where the parade begins, were once U.S. Route 395. The route passes markets, a barbecue house and the branch library, and the business plazas behind them serve as parking. The parade is free and runs rain or shine, pending safety advisories. Police are posted along the entire route. The rules forbid any entry to throw things to the crowd, because thrown items can injure spectators and draw children into the street. Items may be handed over instead.

Three microphones on Poway Road

Announcers work from three stations along the route. One is in front of Oak Knoll Market. One is at Kaminski’s BBQ & Sports Lounge, where organizers suggest taking breakfast on the patio. The third is the grandstand at the Poway Branch Library, near the end of the route, where ADA seating is free on a first-come basis. Kaminski’s is also where the Rotary Club of Poway-Scripps, which runs the parade, holds its Wednesday lunch meetings.

The parade’s website names the voices. Megan Parry, a meteorologist at ABC 10News, calls the grandstand. She grew up in Poway, attending Painted Rock, Twin Peaks Middle and Poway High, and she marched in this parade with the Poway High Emerald Brigade. Dave Mason, at Kaminski’s, has worked in San Diego radio and television since 1999, on stations including KGB-FM, KOGO-AM, Sunny 98.1 and KPBS-FM. He has been a voice of the Poway Days Parade for well over a decade. “The most fun I can have on a Saturday morning is to share the fun and color of The Poway Rotary Parade annually,” he says in his biography. Joe Rosati, the afternoon host on Sunny 98.1, takes the Oak Knoll Market station. His biography recalls a parade in which his son, a drummer, and his daughter, a clarinetist, marched with the Poway High School Marching Band.

The grandstand added entertainment in 2026. Daniel Brenner, a past president of the club, told the Pomerado News that community feedback had shown organizers a problem. By the time the first entries reached the grandstand at the end of the route, the people seated there were pretty bored. The Mt. Carmel High School Choir, a program of three ensembles, sang there in 2026. The site lists two singers for the national anthem. Allison Mah is a junior and soprano section leader in the Madrigals choir at Rancho Bernardo High School. Victoria Holmes, born and raised in Poway, played oboe through school and is invited back each year to sing at her hometown’s parade.

A panel of community judges scores the entries:

• Charles Valentine, manager of Kahoots Pet Store and Scout Master of Boy Scout Troop 625
• Jonathan Hayward, a mathematics teacher at Orange Glen High School and formerly a professional bassoonist
• Luis Carranza, immediate past governor of Rotary District 5340
• Mike Leland

Drones, tractors and the Victorian Roses

The Pomerado News expected more than 75 participants in 2026. The entries included first responders, restaurants, religious organizations, dancers, high school marching bands and martial arts demonstrations. Members of the Victorian Roses Ladies Riding Society rode on horseback in Victorian-era dresses. The Poway-Midland Railroad took part, along with vintage tractors and predator drones from General Atomics, the parade’s diamond sponsor.

The 2025 lineup, posted on the parade’s site, gives the order of a recent year. The San Diego County Sheriff’s Office and the City of Poway Fire Department led, followed by the grand marshal, Paul “Bear Dog” Rodriguez. Later came:

• the 3d Marine Aircraft Wing Band
• Early Day Gas Engine and Tractor Assn. Branch 22
• the San Diego Model A Ford Club
• the John P. Squibob Chapter of E. Clampus Vitus
• Thriller San Diego
• the San Diego Korean Pungmul Institute
• the submarine veterans of SUBVETS
• Miss Vietnam San Diego
• Poway 4H
• the Poway Rodeo

Poway High School Cheerleading and the Emerald Brigade closed the line. Entries must keep moving forward, and parade pacers along the route see that they do. Organizers encourage every entry to carry its own music and recommend battery-powered boom boxes. Equestrian entries bring their own clean-up crews.

The Pet Parade is the newest part of the program. Families and friends walk their animals in the parade, on leashes, in carriers or otherwise secured. Contests include “most unique pet,” best dressed pet and best float with a pet aboard. Organizers warn that the asphalt can be hot. In 2026 the award for Best Owner + Pet went to Shanae and Penny.

A flatbed for the nonprofits

The 2026 parade, the 61st, stepped off on September 12 under the theme “Spirit of Volunteers.” Brenner said the club chose it to make Poway’s many nonprofit groups visible. “Poway has so many people who make the community better by volunteering,” he said. “The number of nonprofit organizations helping others in our community is great.”

The grand marshal was John Couvrette. He spent nearly 40 years in business before joining his wife, Ginger, in her real estate and property management firm in Poway. He is vice-chair of the Poway Chamber of Commerce and chairs its Non-Profit Consortium of 65 groups. He is also a past president of the Kiwanis Club of Poway. In 2023 he and Ginger founded the Poway Community Foundation, which gives grants to Poway nonprofits. He declined the usual seat on a car. “Instead of me being on the back of a car waving at people, I’ve gone to my friends at EDCO waste disposal service and they’re loaning me a 30-foot flatbed truck and we’re building a float dedicated to all the nonprofits in Poway,” Couvrette said. “The more the merrier. In future years, we’ll continue to have a nonprofit float.”

The 2026 awards:

• Rotary Award: Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 472
• Mayor’s Award: General Atomics Aeronautical
• Best in Theme: Kiwanis K Kids
• Best Marching Band: Rancho Bernardo High School Royal Regiment

From Poway Days to the Rotary Parade

According to Brenner, the parade dates to 1962, when the city of Poway began holding an event called Poway Days each September. The parade opened the celebration. A festival at Poway Community Park followed, and a rodeo closed it. The Poway Rodeo’s own history dates its first show to 1973. That year John Walker and Jack Miller of the Poway Valley Riders Association, who had traveled with their wives to the National Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City at their own expense, joined the Lions Club and the Chamber of Commerce to produce it.

The club’s own posts preserve the 52nd Poway Days Parade, held on September 10, 2016. Its honorary grand marshal was Ray Chavez, 104 years old and the oldest living survivor of the Pearl Harbor attack. Club president Pauline Getz raised money that year to send him and other survivors to Hawaii in December for the 75th anniversary. Close to 90 entries lined up that morning: marching bands, cheerleaders, city officials, rodeo queens and local businesses. The Poway Elks won the service award. Their float was a surprise to Exalted Leader Norm Kaufman, presented to him the morning of the parade by Leading Knight Larry Fink. Elks tradition holds that the Leading Knight provides the float for the Exalted Leader to ride in.

Brenner gave the Pomerado News his account of the change. “The group who put on the events ended up dropping the festival and parade in 2017 because it cost too much and was too much work for them,” he said. “(The Rotary Club of Poway-Scripps) picked the parade up in 2017 and has been running it ever since.” The club’s pages show Getz handing out the trophies at the 2016 parade, a year before that date. They also post the winners of a 2017 Poway Days Parade under the old name. On the parade’s website, the volunteer agreement still reminds volunteers to use appropriate language “when you are promoting the Poways Days Parade.”