By Nicole R. Washington (’80) and Tracy (Case) Arnold ’82
The CHS Alumni Newsletter team is introducing a new and unique ongoing feature: Spotlighting our CHS Alumni Who Participated in Seafair!
If you were involved in Seafair, we’d love to hear your stories—what role did you play, or how were you involved? Don’t worry about making it perfect—that’s why we have an editor to fine-tune everything before it’s published.
Thank you so much for contributing to this exciting feature! Please e-mail your information to: chsaaboardvp80@gmail.com.
Don Brenneman, Cleveland High Alumnus (1965).
I have been a Seafair Clown for 39 years in Seafair Parade events. I remain active in clowning events that occur monthly throughout the year.
It has been my pleasure to be an Associate Member of The Graduates Club of Seattle University and The Seafair Clowns, the Graduates’ Club organized in 1953 at the request of the newly organized Seafair Festival Group. The Graduates Club had volunteers and added clowns as another dimension for the Club. The Clowns organized nutty acts – costumes and props like, old fire trucks, a converted milk truck, midget motorcyles, miniature race cars, and a host of other individual props. As a retired Seattle Firefighter, my favorite prop was riding in parades in my Seafair Clown Fire Department fire truck.
Over the years the Clowns participated in many charitable events including the Jerry Lewis Telethon, the Special Olympics, and the Special People’s Christmas Cruise. We also visit hospitals, senior care facilities, Seattle Children’s Hospital, and the Ronald McDonald House during the weeks of Seafair.
The Seafair Clowns have always brought wide-eye excitement to children while we are in costume and make-up. I get such a great reward performing as a Clown because it’s well worth all the time and effort when you see a youngster’s face break into a big smile as the result of something you have done as a Seafair Clown.
As a Seafair Clown, I represent Seafair by participating in parades and festivals in the Seattle area and outside the Puget Sound region. I have clowned on many trips to the Apple Blossom in Wenatchee and the PNE Exhibition Parade in Vancouver B.C. Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, the Clowns and I represented Seafair and the City of Seattle in the annual Mardi-Gras Festival in Mazatlán, Mexico, Seattle’s sister city, where the Clowns rode through the parade on a float built for our group. We were treated like royalty.
Past Seafair Clowns that I remember are Al Moran (1965), staff Mr. Gribble (1965), and current Seafair Pirate Richard Alba (1965).
Don Brenneman,
Seafair Clown
