Circling The News

Natalie McAdams is an event planner and the founder of Namevents.

It is not easy throwing a Fourth of July party that involves music, food and fireworks – for several thousand people.

About a decade ago, the Palisades Americanism Parade Association, a group of volunteers that includes lawyers, architects and businessmen, realized it needed help planning one of the biggest after-parade parties of the year, the fireworks show at Palisades High School.

What PAPA needed was an event planner.

Meet Natalie McAdams of Namevents. “This will be my ninth year with PAPA, including some missing pandemic years,” said McAdams, a professional party planner who works major events. She just finished   Heal the Bay’s June gala.

“I think both the fun and the challenge of PAPA is that it is so grassroots,” McAdams said. “We really rely a lot on volunteers, and we are really budget conscious and thrifty.

“But for me what makes it worthwhile is the great people that I work with,” she said. “Our kids have grown up over the years. My daughter was four when I did my first PAPA event and now, she’s 13. This is the first year that she is going to come and work alongside me.”

McAdams grew up in Houston and went to college and law school in Austin at the University of Texas.

After moving to La Jolla and practicing law for two years, she realized she wanted something different. “I moved to Aspen where I skied and did a number of jobs.”

One of her jobs was co-producing “24 Hours of Aspen,” which was the world championship of endurance skiing. She was asked to co-produce the event the following year and “I realized I had found my calling.”

McAdams met a woman who worked for Major League Baseball and was soon connected to the LA-based production company, Party Planners West, Inc., which was responsible for special MLB events.

She moved to Los Angeles to work for the company, and eventually became a vice president.

Twenty years ago, McAdams decided to open her own company, Namevents (an acronym for her name, Natalie Ann McAdams).

“I do large fundraisers like Heal the Bay, which was held at the Jonathan Club for 600 guests, and PS One Pluralistic School’s 50^th Anniversary Gala, which was held in April at the Skirball,” McAdams said. “Both raised nearly $1 million for their respective causes.”

Another client is City of Hope. “I have two events for them, one in August and one in October. The latter is a seated dinner for 1,200 with headline entertainment.

“This City of Hope dinner is my favorite event of the year because it always has so many moving parts and great headline talent,” McAdams said. “It was also one of the first big events that I did on my own, so it holds a special place in my heart.”

Although she plans large for-profit events and galas, McAdams works with a minimal budget on PAPA’s behalf.

“Since we’re so active in the nonprofit area, we are cleverly creative,” she said. “It’s true that I might make more money doing other things, but PAPA has heart and soul and for me that’s important.”

“My mom taught me the value of giving back and helping the less fortunate as I was growing up,” McAdams said. “She did not work but she was always volunteering and often brought us kids along with her.”

The lesson McAdams learned early: “It feels good to do good.” It’s a lesson that she is imparting to her daughter. They volunteer for the Giving Spirit, which does outreach for the homeless.

Additionally, “I like the special challenge of making something impactful within a budget,” McAdams said. “I’m very happy that we are going to have this event with food trucks, music and fireworks this year.”

The winner of the parade theme contest is John Abruscato (right), shown here with his family.
Photo: Lesly Hall

By LOLA COFFEY

A regular attendee with his family at the Pacific Palisades Fourth of July Parade, John Abruscato is now also the winner of this year’s parade theme contest with his entry: “Red, White and Blue in 2022.”

“My wife Laura, a daily reader of Circling the News, shared with me that the parade committee was looking for a theme. I quickly came up with ‘Red, White and Blue in 2022’ which I thought had a nice rhyme to it.”

John learned about the annual parade through Laura, a writer for various Palisades publications. “I look forward to it every year,” he says, noting that his favorites include Pasadena Scottish Pipes and Drums and the horses.

“I enjoy seeing the old, well-maintained cars and who is riding in them, particularly local politicians,” says John, who himself drives a near-classic 1985 Toyota Celica Supra with the original engine and interior and 148,000 miles.

Other favorites are local entrants like the Patriotic Pups, Palisades Charter High School football players and PPBA baseball players throwing out candy, says John, who was a Little League utility player growing up in Elmont, New York and the San Fernando Valley.

“I think the parade is very patriotic and I like seeing how it’s well-attended,” says John, a West L.A. resident. “We are always running late to the parade looking for parking. One of these years I hope to arrive early enough to see the skydivers jump from the plane and land on Sunset.”

John grew up in Queens and Long Island until age 8. At that time, his father, a sales executive for Columbia Pictures Television, was transferred to Los Angeles and the family settled in Tarzana. He graduated from Taft High School and Cal State University Northridge.

His earliest memory of the Fourth of July was when his father lit and allowed him to hold a sparkler. Fourth of July growing up included barbecues with friends and watching fireworks in the Valley.

John, a personnel analyst for the City of L.A., works with the Operations and Maintenance division of 1,000-plus employees at Los Angeles World Airports.

He and Laura have two children. Jared will be a senior at PaliHi and is a member of their Western League-winning track team. Lily will be a seventh grader at The Archer School for Girls where she participates in the dance program. In 2018, Lily rode her decorated bike with Kids on Bikes and she marched in 2019 along with members of Troop 6445 and other local Girl Scout troops.

Since both their children attended Palisades Elementary School over a span of 11 years, and Jared attended Paul Revere Middle School, the family always enjoys seeing friends and classmates along the parade route and marching in the parade.

The Abruscatos have also been regulars at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade when visiting family in New York City. “We take the subway or a taxi to 72^nd and Central Park West to get as close as we can to the parade,” John says. Bystanders are allowed to stand about 250 feet away from the parade. “With the balloons being so high, we can see them without obstruction, but to see the floats go by we might have to hop on scaffolding by the Dakota building. I put the kids on my shoulders when they were younger,” he recalls.

“With the Palisades parade you’re so much closer and it’s exciting to see the costumes and faces of the participants.”

The family also enjoys watching fireworks around the Westside. “We used to live on the third floor so could see several sets of L.A. fireworks from the western-facing balcony, then would run to the other side to watch fireworks in other parts of the city from the eastern-facing balcony.”

John’s favorite parade viewing spot is somewhere in the shade, either with friends along the parade route or near the corner of Via de la Paz and Antioch.  “I enjoy the announcing by the emcees there, Sue Pascoe and Manfred Hofer. They do a very good job.”

This year the family plans to arrive early, and as parade theme winner, John and his family get to sit in the VIP bleachers in front of Ralphs. “I’m looking forward to a comfortable, unobstructed view when watching the parade,” he says.

Once again horses will be in the Palisades 4th of July Parade.
Photo: Joanne Reich

BY LAUREL BUSBY

About a year ago, the California State Guard 26^th Mounted Unit expanded their duties from parades and events to search and rescue and security.

The all-volunteer force, which should feature more than a dozen horses and riders at the Pacific Palisades Fourth of July Parade, trains one weekend a month, for eight hours each day, to learn these new skills, according to Command Sergeant Major Daniel DeGeorge.

“The training is very intense because they want to make sure they’re doing it the right way, following the regulations, doing what the mission requirements would ask for, so that not only them as riders but their animals are prepared for different scenarios,” DeGeorge said.

As the California State Guard’s senior enlisted non-commissioned officer, DeGeorge has observed the group at both parades and during their training exercises, which sometimes include trial search and rescue missions. For example, at one such exercise, two people were intentionally “lost,” and the riders devised a plan to find them and then succeeded in achieving that goal.

The southern members of the contingent generally train at Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base, but they combine with their northern counterparts for training in central California at either Camp Roberts or Camp San Luis Obispo, which “is a great training area for search and rescue because it has varied terrains,” DeGeorge, 59, said.

About six months ago, security training was added to their regimen. The volunteers, who transport their own horses to training and events, have been learning crowd control and how to provide other security tasks, because horses can outrun people on foot.

This expansion is a change for the mounted force, which used to specialize solely in parades and other festive events. The Color Guard, which includes members from the Army, air, and maritime divisions of the California State Guard, also often joined them on marches.

“Parades are an opportunity to share with the community what we have within our organization,” DeGeorge said. Like the Color Guard, the 26^th Mounted “have a lot of pride in what they do and what they represent. Their uniforms are impeccable, and the horses are well maintained. It’s a great representation of what we do.”

The increase in their duties stemmed from some changes within both the California State Guard and the military overall, which required some units to become more operational due to overseas deployments that left voids, he said.

“It helps the military to have more assets,” noted DeGeorge, who added that the California State Guard is strictly a state military organization, so its all-volunteer force always remains in the state and is under the jurisdiction of the governor.

The guard also is always looking for new members, including personnel on horseback, although, thus far, they have yet to be called into service for one of a search-and-rescue or security mission. DeGeorge said that he anticipates the Mounted’s eventual use in varied capacities, including at checkpoints during catastrophic fires. He noted that the guard is called to search and rescue missions every few days, so eventually the horses and their dedicated riders will join some of these searches.

“These individuals are true servants,” DeGeorge said. “They give up their personal time away from their families. They are such great advocates for the California State Guard and the entire military.”

Caption: Once again horses will be in the Palisades Parade, as the Mounted Unit takes the route.

Photo: Joy Daunis