Easy Rider: Patriotic-minded Hilliard educator to lead city's Fourth of July parade on two wheels

The grand marshal of a Fourth of July parade usually rides on four wheels, typically with tailfins, chrome and an open top.

Jeff Decker is going with the open top but little else should look typical when the Darby Creek Elementary School physical education teacher leads Hilliard’s 2022 Fourth of July parade.

Instead of four wheels, Decker is to pedal a two-wheel Micargi Stretch Cruiser, an elongated bicycle that, like himself, is to be decorated in red, white and blue as he leads the parade July 4.

It came as no surprise to the fair organizers either.

After informing him he had been selected as grand marshal and asking if he accepted, Decker said he was asked in what kind of car he preferred to ride.

“I said I wanted to change it up a little and they said, ‘That’s what we thought,’” Decker said.

Decker, 56, has a love for bicycles.

Decker rides about 15 miles a day and established the Darby Creek Bike Club at Darby Creek Elementary School.

Fourth and fifth-grade students meet once a month to ride on a trail near the school and bicycles are provided for students who do not own a bicycle, according to Decker.

The club includes a ‘bike rodeo,’ where students also learn bicycle maintenance and repair, Decker said.

Also since teaching at Darby Creek Elementary School for the past 10 years, Decker established a Veterans Day program.

Decker is not a veteran but said he wanted his students to learn about America’s veterans and to recognize veterans who are related to his students.

“I asked my students to bring in photographs and share about the veterans in their families,” said Decker, who has kept all the photos and stories and he assembles the collection on the wall each Veterans Day.

The earliest students to bring photos and share stories have since graduated from high school.

“Sometimes, I look at all of them after I hang them up each year at Veterans Day, when I’m the only one looking at them, and just think ‘wow,'” Decker said.

The program at the school also includes veterans visiting the school and speaking with students.

Decker is also a volunteer for Honor Flight Columbus, the local chapter of an organization that provides veterans with a free flight to Washington D.C. and an individual guide to visit the World War II, Korean War, Vietnam and other monuments related to America’s military service.

Decker saw an Honor Flight Columbus group at John Glenn Columbus International Airport five years ago and upon learning about its mission, became one of its volunteers.

Decker, as a member of the Hilliard United Methodist Church, also helps pack lunches once a week with the Hilliard Kiwanis Club to support the Feeding Hilliard Students program.

Despite the record of public service, Decker said he was still surprised to learn he had been selected as grand marshal.

“I thought that was for people… older than me,” said Decker, who is to retire next year from Hilliard City Schools after 34 years in education.

Decker taught nine years at Canal Winchester Local Schools and one year in Wichita, Kansas, before arriving at Hilliard City Schools.

He has a bachelor’s degree in education from The Ohio State University and a master’s degree from Ashland University.

A native of Marion, where he played a variety of sports, he and his wife, Kelli, have a 28-year-old son, Cole, and a 20-year-old daughter, Andrea.

The parade Decker is to lead on his bicycle is to begin at 9 a.m. July 4 and take a different route than previous years.

Instead of ending at the parking lots for Hilliard Darby High School and Heritage Middle School, the paradeshould both start and end at the Franklin County Fairgrounds.

The parade is to travel in generally a reverse path than in previous years.

It is to start from the Franklin County Fairgrounds and move southwest on Main Street.

Instead of making a turn on Norwich Street, it is to continue moving southwest on Main Street, passing First Responders Park and Hilliard’s Station Park before turning east on Cemetery Road.

The parade is to continue east on Cemetery Road, then northwest on Norwich Street until reaching Columbia Street where the parade route is to turn east on Columbia Street and end at the fairgrounds.

Registration for the parade, with a theme of “Red, White and Together Again” closed June 20.

The theme is a nod toward the having of what is expected to be a parade experience that resembles those from before the onset of COVID-19, according to Abby Bates, parade chairwoman, Franklin County Agriculture Society.

The decision to tweak the parade route is to make it more convenient for parade participants, Bates said.

In addition to the parade, the city is to celebrate Freedom Fest July 2 at Roger A. Reynolds Municipal Park, 3800 Veterans Memorial Drive.

Louisiana native and multi-platinum composer and country vocalist Dylan Scott is to perform at Freedom Fest

“(Scott’s) performances are high-energy and family friendly. He is a young up-and-coming country artist with top hits on the radio (and) is exactly what we look for when choosing a headliner for Freedom Fest,” said Ed Merritt, director of Hilliard’s recreation and parks department.

Activities and entertainment at the 2022 Freedom Fest are to begin at 3 p.m. July 2 at Roger A. Reynolds Municipal Park.

A ‘Kids' Zone’ featuring obstacle courses, inflatables and other games and entertainment are to be open from 5 to 9 p.m.

Limited parking is available, but the city is providing a shuttle service from 6 to 11 p.m. to and from the Franklin County Fairgrounds, 4100 Columbia Street, said Anna Subler, community relations administrator for Hilliard.

Live music is to begin at 5:15 p.m. concluding with Scott, who is to perform from 8:20 to 9:30 p.m.

The National Anthem is to be performed by Hilliard Davidson High School student Lisa Curtis at 9:45 p.m. in advance of a fireworks display.

Hilliard chose July 2 for Freedom Fest so as not to conflict with Columbus’ ‘Red, White & Boom’ on July 3.

“We thought it would be more convenient for our residents to have the fireworks on the weekend,” so the city opted for July 2 rather than July 4, Subler said.

kcorvo@thisweeknews.com

@ThisWeekCorvo

This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Patriotic-minded Decker to lead Fourth of July parade on two wheels