It’s all over until next year. All the decorations have been packed away. All the candy we so gleefully flung from vehicles to the crowds lining the street has been collected. All the Family Fun Day vendors have gone home, the games packed away and the items we borrowed have been returned to their rightful owners.

I know it’s risky to try to name all the people who helped, but I’m going to try, so please forgive me if I miss anyone. There are just so many of you!

Thanks to Week of Hope Coordinator Jay Willer and the miracle of youth service. Adult leaders set the tone for their charges. Everyone worked through the dust, the heat and humidity to make Dale City look beautiful. Young people from New York, New Jersey, West Virginia, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania came here to serve. Please spread the good word about the Week of Hope service program.

Thanks to VDOT’s Jimmy Simmons for loaning traffic cones for Neighborhood Pride Week use for the 2 week span from the onset of NPW through the clean up after the parade. Thanks to VDOT for the street sweeping and striping. It was an enormous help to have the sand and grass scooped from the medians, and thanks for the many bags of debris they picked up for us.

PWC Neighborhood Services also picked up many bags of heavy sod we cut from the curbs. Thanks to the litter crew for coming before we even called. Thanks to the Clean Community Council for providing safety vests and gloves and loaning us two large safety signs.

Enormous thanks go to the residents of Dale Boulevard for all the hard work you put forth to make the parade route beautiful. We know it’s a hassle to move your vehicles and to have crowds on your lawns and deal with the traffic.

Amy and Sara from Pitkin’s donated hats for our Week of Hope volunteers to wear in the parade and sand to fill the box at Family Fun Day for the Treasure Hunt. Keeyana Mahoney from the Hylton Boys and Girls Club loaned us some games to use at Family Fun Day. Thanks to all the vendors who put the fun in Family Fun Day.

The parade committee will probably have their own list of folks to thank, but I’d like to thank the parade committee, for without their efforts, our Independence Day celebration wouldn’t occur. Thanks to the Dale City Civic Association, Dale City Volunteer Fire Department, VFW Post 1503, American Legion Post 364, Woodbridge Elks Lodge 2355, Dale City Lions, Dale City Moose Lodge 2165, Dale City Knights of Columbus, Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Washington, Dale City Masonic Lodge 319 and the Disabled American Veterans Chapter 48. Special thanks to Dave and Irene Dell and Ernestine Jenkins for coordinating the parade.

I thank our local volunteers: Sean McDonald who put together a team from Omicron Zeta Sigma for NPW. Our sole Community Service volunteer, Brianne, set the standard for pleasant, hard working teenagers!

Thanks to Kayne, Janice, Shannan, James and Kelly for working their heart out during NPW.

Thanks to the team who helped set up Family Fun Day: Lillian, Diane, John, Joe, Yvonne, Bill, Linda and Michael. Thanks to Ross Channer…best security guard ever!

Huge thanks to our editor, Nathan Curby for all the coverage and thanks to Rick Miller and Sebastian for all the great photos. (They all worked with us a while, too!)

I saved the best for last: Thank you to my dear friend, Linda Gosnell and my husband Bill. They not only put in an incredible number of hours, they put up with the over-excitable, often grouchy, totally demanding coordinator!

A recording of the Dale City Independence Day Parade will be aired at 3 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays and 7:30 p.m. on Wednesdays throughout the month of July on Comcast Channel 2.