It’s time to celebrate Oro Valley’s first 50 years.
At 9 a.m. Saturday, April 6, floats, vintage cars, animals, marchers and performers will proceed along Naranja Drive, from Ironwood Ridge High School to the Oro Valley Branch Library, in a one-time-only event — Oro Valley’s 50th Anniversary Parade.
Across the community, people of all ages and stations in life — chefs, nurse practitioners, dancers, horn players, real estate brokers — are getting ready to show their pride in the community. Without exception, they love Oro Valley, and want their gratitude to show. Everyone’s invited to watch and cheer.
See some of their stories below.
The IRHS Spirit Line
Two mornings a week at 6 a.m., members of the Ironwood Ridge High School Spirit Line roll out the mats for practice. Think that’s early and often? They do so four times a week in the fall and winter, at 5:45 a.m.
To lead cheers, they’ve got to keep their grades up.
“They’re students first, athletes second,” said head coach Devon Busby, in her fifth year at the helm, aided by Tami Catalano and Alyssa Fischer.
Make no mistake: these young women (and one young man) are athletes, combining strength and conditioning with movement and routine.
“It’s the full gamut of working out,” Busby said. Watch them practice, and you’ll strain to remember when you could move that way, if ever.
They’ll be on a flatbed in the parade, which limits their action to arm motions “and a lot of standing and waving,” Catalano said. Nevertheless, they’re excited to be part of it.
“I’ve never been in a parade before,” one says.
They’re proud, too, to represent IRHS, Spirit Line and the community they enjoy.
“It’s nice, it’s clean,” they pipe up. “It has mountains,” one said. “There’s Wal-Mart,” another says, to laughter. And movies. From Inn-N-Out to Charred Pie, they like the balance of fast food and family restaurants. They feel safe here, and with one another.
Spirit Line “builds a sense of community you can always go to,” said Mily Wingler, 17-year-old junior.
“You make a lot of friendships,” said Elaina Romero, a 16-year-old junior. “We spend so much time together.”
Busby is a longtime Amphi Public Schools teacher. “A lot of my old students, I’ve watched them grow up” through Spirit Line, she said. “I know the teachers, I know the staff. My kids went here. You build that relationship with everyone, watching the girls evolve over the years.”
It’s 7:15. Time to roll up the mats and get ready for class. They’ll roll on in Saturday’s parade.
Fork & Fire Smokehouse
Josh and Aleina Bishop and their two children moved to Oro Valley 13 years ago, when he was asked to manage The Keg Steakhouse.
Their plan was to stay six months.
“After our first six-month lease was up, we bought a home” in Rancho Vistoso, Bishop said. “We decided, ‘let’s stay here.’”
Why stay? “Initially, it was the small-town community feel, the safety,” he said, and “it’s absolutely gorgeous.”
Oro Valley has become more than beautiful.
“The people and community we’ve become a part of has been amazing,” Bishop said. “Fellowship with people over food, there’s nothing better than that. You become a part of their family, almost.”
His children grew up here. “The school system’s been great,” Bishop said. And the Bishops have grown in business. Two years ago, they opened Fork & Fire Smokehouse and Taproom in Oro Valley Marketplace. They also own and run the Fork & Fire food truck, and Wildfire Wing Company in Catalina. Just recently, Aleina Bishop acquired the franchises for Tucson Balloon Lady and Tucson Sign Gypsy, leasing a space in Oro Valley’s Mountain View Plaza to operate those businesses.
“We have a leg up on decorating a float for the parade,” Josh Bishop said. “We decorate by design.”
Tucson Balloon Lady is arranging balloons to look like fire. Tucson Sign Gypsy has created the “Happy Birthday Oro Valley” signage, with big numerals 50. Forky, the mascot, will don headgear.
Along the route, they’re handing out coupons for a birthday dessert. For the Bishops, the 50th anniversary parade is an opportunity to say thanks, to be involved, and to celebrate the place they call home.
The CDO Marching Band
Some members of the Canyon del Oro High School Marching Band face a short night before parade day.
They’re due back from a competition in Phoenix at 2:15 a.m. Saturday. They’re expected at CDO less than four hours later, at 6 a.m. Saturday.
Sleep can wait. Proudly, they’ll march and play in the 50th anniversary parade.
“We signed up for this parade for a reason, giving gratitude to the Oro Valley community,” said drum major Leeah Payne, a 16-year-old junior.
“We just love being around each other, and being able to show our pride in this program, and the pride we have in this school and in this community,” said saxophone player Taryn Quelland, a 17-year-old senior.
“We’re a family,” said sousaphone player Caden Deatherage, a 16-year-old junior. “It’s a really good community. There are a lot of good communities at this school, and in Oro Valley generally.” CDO students can take risks, and “not be afraid to be judged.”
“Music is our safe place,” said horn player Kailey Gueths, an 18-year-old senior. “I can express myself with music.”
“It’s a place we can do what we want, express ourselves, and have fun doing the things we love doing,” said horn player Ciara Duffy, a 17-year-old junior. She moved to Oro Valley from Rhode Island as a child. “It’s different here. I’ve met a lot of great people. I owe a lot to it.”
“Everyone has a good connection in Oro Valley,” Quelland said. “A lot of us have open-enrolled to this school... because it brings all these great people together. It’s so inviting and so welcoming.”
Payne broke her foot as a freshman and could not march in the Tucson Rodeo Parade. “I wanted to do a parade,” she said. “I’m doing it, and it’s an Oro Valley parade, and that’s super cool in my mind.”
Ranee Schmuker is in her fourth year as director of bands at Canyon del Oro High School.
“I absolutely love Oro Valley,” Schmuker said. “You can breathe better up here, and the mountains make it magical.”
She also loves the kids in the band.
“They’re a gift,” Schmuker said.
Long Realty Oro Valley
Creating a parade float “brings the camaraderie into your business,” said Jodi Koch, longtime and proud Oro Valley resident and a Long Realty associate broker.
“That’s a huge part of it,” Koch said. “We’re a family here.”
To wit, the Long Oro Valley office is holding a “float and floats party” on April 5. Branch manager Rachel Bradley, mother of three young children, said agents will be decorating the float while consuming root beer and cola floats.
The Long float theme is “Living the American Dream at HOME in Oro Valley.”
Agents are going to build a stick house with 2-by-4s on a trailer dressed in patriotic bunting. People depicting all walks of Oro Valley life are accompanying the float. They’ll wear hiking hats, bicycle shirts, lab coats and chef’s attire, “all the aspects of what Oro Valley gives us,” Koch said.
Most Long Oro Valley agents live in the community. “You can just feel how proud they are of the community they live and work in,” Bradley said. “There’s just an energy out here.”
Associate broker Louise Griffin is moving to Oro Valley. “I want to be closer to my office,” she said, “and all the things Oro Valley has to offer.” That includes the views, mountains, the community center, hiking “and employment for other members of my family is in Oro Valley,” Griffin said. She appreciates that town leadership has “made sure there were jobs, in technology, and in medicine.
“It’s really the people of this community who make it what it is,” Griffin said.
“I’m proud of Oro Valley,” Koch said. “They include us. They give you a voice, and I really think they listen.”
Oro Valley Urgent Care
Beth Brown is a nurse practitioner and owner of Oro Valley Urgent Care, a locally owned healthcare business that just marked its one-year anniversary in Steam Pump Village.
The parade is “perfect timing for us to celebrate the town as well as celebrating our birthday,” she said.
On its float, Oro Valley Urgent Care is “trying to display where we’re located in Steam Pump Village, the heart of Oro Valley,” Brown said. “We’ll have a stethoscope with a heart.” There’s a karaoke machine, too, to sing, play music and engage with the crowd.
She loves Oro Valley. “The mountains are beautiful, the town is gorgeous, the view out of our windows is breathtaking every day,” Brown said. “The small-town feel with the big amenities is helpful.”
Her sons grew up in Rancho Vistoso. “We just loved that neighborhood so much,” Brown said. “We feel safe letting them play outside,” without worry. “It’s like Mayberry,” she said, referring to the television series of yore.
Events like parades are “important to us,” Brown said. “We want to be a part of the community, and what better way to do that than celebrating the birth of our town, 50 years old, with a parade.”
The Oro Valley 50th Anniversary Parade
WHEN: 9 a.m., Saturday, April 6
WHERE: Along Naranja Drive, from Ironwood Ridge High school to the Oro Valley Branch of the Pima County Library. Access to Naranja Drive closed along the parade route from Shannon to La Canada.
INFO: bit.ly/3xjysiv
