FIREFIGHTER TO LEAD THE BIG PARADE PERENNIAL VOLUNTEER SELECTED AS GRAND MARSHAL FOR ANNUAL FESTIVAL.

Byline: Greg Botonis Staff Writer

LEONA VALLEY - When Leona Valley Improvement Association members wanted to ask longtime resident John Grimm to be the grand marshal in the annual Cherry Parade and Festival, they thought they would surprise him.

Grimm, supervisor of Leona Valley's ``call'' firefighters, was invited out to breakfast by a man claiming to want to learn about becoming one of these volunteers. Grimm went ready to explain the requirements for a volunteer firefighter.

Instead, the man told him he was to ride in honor in the June 11 parade.

``I was speechless, which is really something for me,'' Grimm said. ``I told him I didn't know what to say. I didn't even know I was nominated.''

A 30-year Leona Valley resident, Grimm was a professional firefighter for the Los Angeles Fire Department for 32 years before he officially retired but kept on working as a volunteer.

At Fire Station 140 in Leona Valley, he supervises 13 firefighters who are summoned by pagers in emergencies to work alongside regular full-time county firefighters.

Since being named parade marshal, Grimm said, he has been teased as well as praised by other firefighters.

``Some say you deserve it. Others bow,'' Grimm said. ``Some other firefighters I know have grabbed my hand to look for a ring to kiss.''

Grimm is a past treasurer of the Leona Valley Improvement Association. He and his wife, Linda, were active in the PTA when their daughters, Robyn and Kristin, were schoolchildren. Both daughters are graduates of Quartz Hill High School and are now married.

The parade will begin at 11 a.m. June 11 from 90th Street West and Leona Avenue and continue to the Leona Valley Community Center at 8367 Elizabeth Lake Road. The annual Cherry Festival will start after the parade.

People planning to attend should arrive before 10:30 a.m. to see the parade or after noon for post-parade festivities. Roads will be closed to other traffic during the parade.

The junior grand marshal is Hanna Price, who suggested the theme: ``Cherry good times: Pick 'em, chew 'em, spit 'em.''

The festival will run from noon until about 4 p.m. Visitors can eat barbecued food and cherry pie and buy handicrafts. There will be games and contests for youngsters.

The town's orchards in which customers pick the fruit themselves were expected to open this week. The cherry crop is only about 60 percent of normal because winter storms hindered bees from pollinating the blossoms that produce the fruit, said grower Jim Bonn, the parade chairman.

Visitors will still find cherries, he said.

``There will be plenty for them to pick,'' he said.

Leona Valley is nine miles west of the Antelope Valley Freeway off Palmdale Boulevard, which becomes Elizabeth Lake Road.

Information and directions to orchards can be found at www.cherriesupic.com. The Leona Valley Cherry Growers Hotline, [phone], offers updated cherry information.

Information on the parade is available at [phone].

Greg Botonis, [phone]

greg.botonis(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

(1 -- color) John Grimm, supervisor of volunteer firefighters in Leona Valley, will be grand marshal for the annual Cherry Parade and Festival there on June 11.

(2 -- color) John Grimm, grand marshal for this year's Cherry Parade, was a professional firefighter before he officially retired and became a volunteer.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer