We're talking fourth best already. Wow. Summer's in full swing. It has not even summer yet.
And Louis Tutt is here and you are the director of fundraising for the best. You know, the
guys got to put the, put the squeeze on people for money. Right. People, people, a lot
of people like to give money to some people. You got to squeeze a little harder to get the
money out of them. Now people say, this is really interesting. Fourth best, when is that coming
up coming up the fourth of July? How's that? That's easy to remember. It's a fact. Now, when
is the fourth of July? What day of the week this year now? It's a Friday. Oh, that's great.
Yes. Friday Saturday Sunday. Yeah. And then people will be too tired making a Monday and for sure.
Yeah. We drop party and wow. That's pretty good. Okay. So the fourth best is on the parade is
coming up on Friday, right? Or is it Friday the fourth? Right in the fourth. Yes. Well,
that worked out real well. And this is a major undertaking. I know I talked to Dave Mack all
the time. And I can just see it. What a major undertaking this is to put a parade of this magnitude
together. Yeah. We take off the month of August. And then we start right back up in September.
And we have our monthly meetings and we start planning right then and there. They've got about 150
units or float, not floats, but units in the parade, right? Yes. That's a lot to get those people
all together in one. Well, we have the biggest parade in the Midwest. Yeah. The best parade
in the Midwest. You've got animals. You got horses. I know the the horses, the Mexican horses they have.
That was a great to watch them. Yeah. They're dancing. Yeah. They're dancing down the Main Street.
You've got bands. Yes. You've got high school bands. You've got dogs in the parade. We have
the banter band. Oh, the banter band this year. Yeah. All right. The University of Wisconsin
banter band. And all the local high schools are involved. I know we're involved too. We have a
classic car we have in the parade. Yeah. And it's was leaking coolant last year. And I said to
Lou, who was driving it, I said, we're going to make it all plenty. As I sort of breed puddle
when we're going to pick up. And I know this is the hard part. You'll pray for nice weather.
Absolutely. What happens if it does rain? We just keep going. I mean, if it's a thunder storm,
then we'll have to delay it for a day. Yeah. I know. It's it's tough to and you're looking
out the sky and you're praying for nice weather. And you have no control over that. That's the one
thing you have no control over. That's a fact. Now, it costs a lot of money to put this parade
on. I assume right? Well, yeah. It's right around 90 grand a year. And the city puts up
the police and they pay for them, of course. So that's part of the fee. And they put up about
third of the fireworks. So they do get the fireworks. It does. Yeah. Yeah. So the fireworks and we've
got major spots for the fireworks. You know, we get all that money then the rest of it. We
got to come up with and I'm in charge of fundraising. So that's why I'm here. I've been out of the
parade route. They got the little little golf carts looking for money and people. I see people
all the time throwing fives and 10 and 20s in there. Yeah. Because that's what it takes to
the parade. Yeah. We do that during the parade. There's a lot of money come from those golf
cart collections. You know, I think our best year was like 3,800. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. So that the
people on the parade route, they see how important it is to us. And you know, you ride down,
I've been doing this for 34 years. And I ride down and I'm in charge of pre-parade.
Then I follow up as at large Marshall. And you see the little kids sitting on the curves and
smiling. And once while I'll stop and ask the parents if I can give them a ride in the parade,
how am I golfing? Really? What do you do? Yeah. And they just, they're smiling from ear to ear
and I just love it. And that's why I do it is for the kids. Then you return the kid and say,
that's $20, please. Yeah. You want your kid back $20? Well, that's great. And so you have
you have a not tape to reach the money you've got to reserve. Now you've got, if you don't hit that,
you've got to find it from somewhere. Well, we do, we have a budget. So what we're doing this year
is actually for next year, which is going to be our 90th year. So we're planning big things for
our 90th year. And you know, we're, we're sitting solvent now. And we got to have the
monies for next year's parade. And that's why I'm here to promote what we're doing. So this year's
all in, this is in the books now. They got the money you're ready to go. So we got every year.
It's got to be a little more. Yeah. And because prices go up. Exactly. And it costs us quite a
bit to get the bands to come. You know, they, it's a cost for them to get here. You know,
then we got to put them up. And so yeah, it costs money. Now think about what you do for fourth
fest. How about those people that put the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade together? Can you believe that?
That's a full time staff. It's going to be. That's their full time job. Yes. Yeah. They start just
like we do the day after Thanksgiving after Thanksgiving and planning. Yeah. I mean, I can't imagine
what it takes to put that together. Yeah. Especially in this like New York City, closing down
the streets. You got NBC covering the parade here. All these things going on. And you got these
celebrities. You got to bring in. Well, look at that. And the Rose Bowl parade. Oh, don't even
start with that. Yeah. That's amazing. Yes. You're a salt. But you know, like I've always said,
everybody loves a parade. You know, I mean, on a nice day. Yeah. Yeah.
A nice day. Right. So I live on the parade route. So it's great. Yeah. So even if it's bad weather,
I said, I just go to my, my window and watch it out the window. I can do that. That's no problem.
And it's just people sit on our lawn. We have our usual people that come every year and just sit
there and say, uh, can I use the bathroom? You got food we can eat? You got, uh, you got some hot
dogs. You can put on the grill for us. You got some drinks for us. Right. It happens every year.
And a few years ago, we started a house decorating contest. Yes. I know. On Main Street. I see
the people that win all the time. Yes. So that's awesome. Yeah. And some people really go out of
they go really wild with these decorations. It's great. It's on main. I know on Main Street. They have
the contest. Louis Tutton is here. He is the director of fundraising for Fort Fest coming up on
the 4th of July this year. And you would tell him you're off the air there that a lot of people come
from all over the country. Yes. I've got people come up to me during pre parade and ask me where
they should go. And I just don't just go to Main Street, go find a seat and ask them where they're
from. I've had people from Michigan or Ohio, Illinois, of course. And just I had a couple that
came here from Kansas City. They heard about our parade and they come down to see this. And
it's just amazing. And I got another story where on 21st, we're having a block party over on
Main and High Street. Yeah. Right by the Randall Barter throwing this for us. And I got a hold
of this guy that runs Bakes tournaments since his name is Christian. And I'll tell him that,
you know, I don't know nothing about the Bakes tournaments. And I said, but I need your help. So
what's he going to take? And he said, he came here three years ago just to visit a friend.
And he kept it to be on the fourth. He went and saw our parade. Then he saw our fireworks.
Told his wife. We got a move here. So they moved up here from Florida to be in our city. Isn't
that awesome? That is. Yes. And he just loves it here. And he's going to run this Bakes tournaments
for us for nothing. Wow. Yes. He's going to candle it off for me. So we've got a band. We've
got that block party going. We got raffles going. So coming join us. It's going to be a great time.
Live entertainment and a Bakes tournament at the same day. It's by the right where the Randall
Bar is on high in Maine. And when is that again? It's on the 21st of June. June 21th,
easy to remember. First full day of summer. Yeah, we can remember that. Yeah. Again, hopefully,
it's going to be nice weather. Absolutely. It's going to be a nice weather. It'll be this to us.
We've got to feel positive about it. Well, that's great. So now if somebody's listing now,
they say, gee, I want to help donate. How do they do that? Well, we can go to our
our website. And you can download and donate through that or didn't get ahold of me.
You know, I'm on the website also. It's the fundraiser. And I'm always looking for ideas.
For money. Yeah. You know, so we've got that. I got our golf outings going to be on the 28th
this year. Tell us about that. That's going to be out at Ives Grove. And I'm looking for golfers.
I've got whole sponsors. I've got beer sponsors. I've got sponsors for that. I got, you know,
waiting for golfers. Why need golfers? We need door prizes. You know, donations. So anybody,
I'm looking for the people at the businesses on Main Street. It's their biggest year. You know,
day of the year for sales. So they can help out sponsor a whole. Now you know, hold
of me in donate prizes. That would be awesome. They tell me real golfers, not putt putt golf.
Like anybody golf. Oh, no, it's a scramble. So it's just there for a fun day because I'm good
on the windmill hole. But when that windmill comes around, my ball goes through the two windmill
fans on it doesn't get I'm good at that. Yeah. Also the clown that had his feet hitting together.
I can get my ball right through those two feet. I can do that. I can I'm pretty good at miniature golf.
But I tried to hold the golf club once. And I know it's a special hold. I just I could I was
hitting the ground with the thing I never got. I I was at the the place right there on
on the interstate. If you get the name of the little golf course they have there,
it's not a little golf course, but they have a putting lives grove.
It's in his groves though. No, it's not. I've grove. And I it was a driving range there. Oh, yeah.
I couldn't get the ball in the air. He went traveling around the ground. And I said, you know,
there's certain things I can't do in life. Yeah, I think that's going to be why we uh,
20 Washington Avenue at a driving range. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I just never I just never can do that.
All right. So let's quick review here for everybody. You have the this is for the fourth
S. Parade. And Louis is the fundraiser. And every time you see the parade, you don't realize
it's a lot of money to put these parades on. It's not free. Everybody's got to, you know,
we got to pay for police. The city kicks in the police. Is that the right? Yes. The city kicks in
the police. And uh, and it doesn't cost any money to bring any of these groups in the bands
where they are on their own. Oh, yeah. No, we got to pay for them. Oh, wow. I didn't know that.
Years ago, when they used to have, uh, you know, the kilties and the scouts and, you know,
they always had we had bands here. They used to have a over at Horlick Field. They had the
contest, you know, the big band contest, you know, marching bands. And so we'd have
10, 11, 12 marching bands in our parade every year, but it cost us money to bring them here.
Then we had to put them up for the night. So that was all money. And usually we put them up at the
high schools. And so yeah, it cost money to bring these. When do they sleep in the gyms?
Yeah. Oh, okay. It's got to be. Yeah. Then I sleep over. You know, and, uh, I have the last
three parades on my cable box because I recorded them on channel 24. Yeah. And it's fun to go back
in the dead of winter when the snow is blowing and you watch the parade. One year you have this guy,
I was from Park High School of Horlick. And he did, he did a summer salt over the golf cart
and continued to do them on the other side of the golf court and landed on his feet.
I don't know how he did it. Yeah. And I said that saved on my cable box. And I say,
this kid is amazing. Right. I mean, he took a chance diving over the golf cart. And obviously
knows what he's doing because he didn't crash and crash and burn on it. And he did it going down
the, uh, the parade route because that's how long is that parade route a couple of miles?
Yes. Yes. It's a lot of walking one. I think it is 3.1 miles. Yeah. So a lot of walking.
Especially if it's a hot day. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of walking. Goal there in Maine. And I know,
I'm exhausted riding in that car. Yeah. I'm exhausted riding in that car for three miles. Yeah.
It's very exhausting to ride in the car and wait for three miles. Yeah. You got to parade,
we've got to ride to get there. But you also had, I used to have my dog in the parade with us,
when we had the van, the old WRJ advantage, spring that my beagle in the parade, you wore a
thing on his head, the little pat, you know, the grand old flag hat. A lot of the politicians,
they walk in the parade. They have a car, but they walk. Right. Who does to them? Yes.
And you've got all the queens of the Job and you've got all the, I love those horses though.
They've seen it. Miss Racine. Yeah. I love the horses though. And they come in. Yeah.
And that's great. I hate to be a marching band after the horses, but you know,
he don't write watch where you walk. And you know, sometimes they take a little too long and cause
a large gap for us. Yeah. You know, so us as marshals are come, I can just speed it up a little
please, please move it up. Yeah. All right. You've been doing the fundraising for how many years?
I've been involved in a fundraising. I took it over from Kevin Gonzales three, four years ago.
No, okay. But I was helping him all along. You were the president of those four fest,
though, right? Yes. Yes. Yes. That's a few years back. Yeah. That's almost a full-time job.
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. There's a lot of Latin ball to that. You know, and our president president,
he's doing a great job. Well, Kudos to you again. The fourth fest parade coming up on the fourth
of July this year. It's a Friday. I just found that out. It's a Friday this year and goes right
past my house. Yeah. And I go to all my relatives who come and sit on my front lawn and
watch the parade and it's really a good time. It's really a good time. The parade is just,
and you can get the roster of the parade online if you want to. So you can follow along.
People that realize this, every float, every unit has a number in it. You can see it in the cars
and on the floats. They have numbers. You can find out where you are. Yeah. But it's,
it runs a long parade, almost three hours. Yes. And that pre-parade isn't up to make your death,
you know? Yeah. All the sirens going. I like to think of the pre-parade. This is the pre-parade.
This is before we get to the parade. Yes. All right. One more time. Somebody wants to donate.
They're hearing now and they say, I want to give money. You go to the website, which is what?
Fourth fest of Greater Racine. There you go. Fourth fest. Yeah. I had to think for a second.
It's on your shirt. Yeah. Fourth fest of Greater Racine. And you can make a donation,
if you like that way, or during the parade route, if you want to make a donation for next year,
the little golf carts come by with the little buckets in there,
pop a 20 or 10 or five, a dollar, whatever you got in there, pop it in there. And you're helping
for the next year as well. Yes. And this, remember, we've got the three big things coming up
before the fourth. Got the golf. Golf outing at what day? That's on the 28th. We've got the
Black Party on the 21st. And that's at high in Maine by the Rhino Bar. Right. And on the third,
we're having our monument square annual party. We have music, food, beer, and so on water,
third of July, right on my name is square, a pre pre. Yeah. There you go. Yeah. So we have a 50-50
raffle going on. We have a big raffle that we're giving off $5,000. Wow. Come on down. It's a great
time where we got a, who do we have for a band of forgetting now? But yeah, it's a very good local
band that's well known. And yeah, it should be great time. It's a great time. Thank you, Louis.
If you missed any of this, we're going to podcast it tomorrow. So people will be able to hear it again.
Louis Tuton, thank you very much for coming in. You're a nice man. Well, thanks for having me here.
Thank you for what you do. Like I said, everybody loves the pre. Come on down and see our parade.
Sounds good, Louis. Thank you very much. Thank you.