CEDAR FALLS - A number of suspiciously lightweight "sandbags" made an appearance at this year's Sturgis Falls Parade.

In reference to the massive sandbagging effort community members made to save the downtown from flooding, several groups tied bags onto their floats, while other parade walkers handed off sandbags to spectators, joking about how heavy they were. The Lampost Theatre Co. even had human sandbags wrapped in orange plastic who ran around others waving blue sheets to represent the river.

Cedar Falls resident Laurie Hazel thought the emphasis on the recent heroic efforts fit well with the Sturgis Falls theme for this year.

"The theme of 'Hometown Heroes' is just wonderful especially with the recent flood. Theres been a lot of people coming together," she said.

Floats offered different interpretations of that theme. "Heroes have everyone wear life jackets," read one belonging to the Waterloo Sail and Power Squadron. "Cedar Falls Rainbow Girls … future hometown heroes," read another.

There were about 100 floats in the parade, making it one of the largest in history, said Mary-Sue Bartlett, who helped organize the event.

"I think the parade gods smiled down on us," she joked, "It was raining for about 10 to 15 minutes beforehand and then it cleared up and we had a wonderful parade."

Alan Petersen attended the 28th annual parade, just as he has attended every year since the parade began. He enjoys the United States Marine Corps band and the old tractors and cars. The parade gets longer every year, Petersen says, but that's OK with him.

"They've got a variety of everything. It's just great," he said. "To see the Marine Band just brings tears to your eyes."

There were several other music makers in the parade, including in Cedar Falls High School Tiger Marching Band, where several recent graduates returned to play drums with their former classmates, and the Waterloo Country Cloggers who danced to "We're All in this Together" as the crowd sang along.

Cedar Falls native Mandy Heath watched the parade from downtown, standing with friends near the end of the route.

"I like the music groups and gymnastics groups, basically groups that do stuff," she said. "I miss when we used to hand out candy."

Even without candy, those in the parade sought ways to get the crowd involved. The Sons of Norway had members dressed as trolls and the Northeast Iowa Basketball Association trailed a full-size basketball hoop for children in the crowd to take a shot or two as they passed by.

A number of class reunion floats from classes of the '70s and '80s also dotted the parade route. Even members of the Cedar Falls High School class of 1965 were out in full force, riding on a float that featured colorful stick figures with members' graduation pictures attached to the heads.

And in an election year, political groups too, were common. Alice Bullers supplied the three llamas and one alpaca to the "Llamas for Obama" group that walked alongside the furry creatures changing "Yes we can."

"They're good little attention grabbers," Bullers said.

Stationed several floats away were the Republicans, who had a giant wooden cutout of an elephant covered with posters for presidential candidate John McCain and other local Republican candidates.

Whatever the political affiliation, many waved tiny American flags as the floats went by.

As the parade came to an end, many headed to Overman Park for entertainment, food and another chance to honor their "Hometown Heroes."

Contact Laura Grevas at (319) 291-1423 or laura.grevas@wcfcourier.com.