By Dwight Gunnarson, Founder of ParadeCloud.com

Today, March 1, 2012, ParadeCloud.com opens for business. Parade Cloud is the world’s first and only tool to help the already busy volunteer organize a local parade. This includes providing an online registration tool, communication tools, staging and line up features, and preparing budgets.

I’ve personally been involved with our local parade in Annandale for most of my life. In fact, I grew up on our parade route. Therefore, I really didn’t have a choice. From a young age, I witnessed the most amazing marching bands and spectacles that you wouldn’t see anywhere else but at a parade. It also provided a unique and positive social gathering that brought most of the community together… …to our house.

My first appearance in our local parade was on the youth hockey float followed by many years in the junior high and high school marching bands. For the past 20-years, I have been blessed in being a part of DaBand, which is a professional street band which allowed us to participate in over 100 parades throughout central Minnesota.

Therefore, when our local Chamber of Commerce needed someone to organize our local Annandale 4th of July parade, apparently I was the obvious choice. Well, being an active community member, how could I say “No”, right?

Upon accepting the position, I was given a large cardboard box with many forms, sheets of paper, and a CD-Rom and was told “Good luck”. As I sifted through the paper and spreadsheets, I asked myself if there is a better way to organize a parade. I looked online and found no help.

Therefore, I set forth on a journey to create a tool to help people in a similar situation to organize a “rock-star” parade that included better communication and less time to coordinate. Therefore, ParadeCloud.com was born.