Many Leelanau County residents like to take to the waters on the biggest holiday of the summer. Glen Arbor residents take this a step further with their Fourth of July boat parade, which is held on Glen Lake every year.
The parade line will form in front of Glen Lake Yacht Club at 3 p.m. Yacht club member Michele Aucello describes the club as the parade’s unofficial sponsor. Unlike many Fourth of July parades, boaters don’t need to register or RSVP a spot; people can just show up in the water on the day of the parade to join in.
The yacht club is located on the northwest side of “big” Glen Lake. From there, the parade will go towards the narrows and into “little” Glen Lake. At that point, Aucello says that some people start breaking off from the group as they turn starboard towards the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Boat Ramp and then loop back under the bridge, but some boaters stay west of the narrows and circle the lake.
This is a very informal event, and there is not a designated parade leader. According to an announcement, boat decorations are optional but encouraged, and in the past, boaters have decorated their vessels with American flags, banners, balloons, and red, white, and blue garlands.
Aucello said that the boat parade is a longstanding tradition in Glen Arbor, an event that keeps the Fourth of July festivities going after the more conventional, land-based parade ends. This year’s Stan Brubaker parade will start at noon in the Glen Haven historic village in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and will continue along Western Avenue in the township.
The boat parade was hosted by the On the Narrows Marina for many years, but the Glen Lake Yacht Club took over as the organizer in 2020. Aucello said that since this was during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, many Fourth of July events were canceled, but the boat parade gave boaters a chance to celebrate while maintaining some distance from each other.
“In the summer of 2020, I called the Narrows (Marina) and asked if the yacht club could take the boat parade over. And they said, ‘by all means.’ And when we held the parade, it was magical – we didn’t know if anyone would even show up,” Aucello said.
Aucello said that she thinks the yacht club organized the boat parade for “many years” before the marina, but she doesn’t know the details. In fact, the boat parade’s origins have been somewhat lost to time, at least within Aucello’s friend circle – she suggested that readers reach out if they have more information.
