By Chris Kelley / BubbleLife Editor
The theme of the annual Exchange Club of Lake Highlands' Annual Fourth of July Parade and Carnival Monday morning was freedom and democracy.
But the topic on the minds of many of the more than 4,000 people who braved the intense summer sun to cheer and applaud their neighbors participating in the mile-long parade in front of Lake Highlands High School on Church Road was the effort to attract a new neighbor to Lake Highlands: Trader Joe's.
The Lake Highlands Area Improvement Association (LHAIA) hopes to attract a Trader Joe's to the Lake Highlands Town Center. The group is attempting to collect 10,000 signatures by the end of the July 4th holiday weekend. A drive-thru signature collection event at the LH Town Center on Saturday drew dozens of cars, and the event was photographed for a video that will be send to executives of Trader Joe's to show the company just how much LH wants a store for the neighborhood.
At Monday's Fourth of July parade, volunteers from LHAIA fanned both sides of the parade route handing out stickers emblazoned with "LH (heart symbol) loves Trader Joe's.
The parade also featured the Lake Highlands High School football and baseball teams, the Highlandettes drill team and cheerleading squads and the LHHS Wildcat Wranglers country and western dance squad. Newly-elected Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings was Grand Marshall of the parade. The Lake Highlands Area Early Childhood PTA took home First Place Float honors.