Lawn Chair Drill Team, Twilight Twirlers ready to ‘razzle dazzle’ Dunwoody 4th of July Parade

This year’s Dunwoody 4th of July Parade will see the return of two popular entries – the Precision Lawn Chair Drill Team and the Twilight Twirlers.

Patrick Fitzgerald, a Dunwoody North resident and founder of the Precision Lawn Chair Drill Team, said the brigade, which is making its fourth parade appearance, will “razzle dazzle” the crowd with its distinctive chants and choreographed routines.

“Every year we try to tighten up the routines and learn some new ones to freshen it up a bit,” Fitzgerald said. “The first year, we backed up the parade quite a bit, but it’s hard to march past people who want to see the routine.”

PARADE GUIDE: Check out Rough Draft’s guide to the Dunwoody 4th of July Parade .

COVID-19 fatigue, he said, was the impetus for forming the lawn chair drill team in 2021 after safety concerns forced the cancellation of the event in 2020.

“After they had to cancel, then announced that it was coming back, I kind of thought that I’d like to be in the parade and do something fun and outrageous,” he said in a 2022 YouTube interview.

He rejected several possible options while searching for something that people with little or no talent could do, including a briefcase drill team he saw participating in a Michigan parade.

“It was a little too stodgy and I didn’t want to wear a suit,” Fitzgerald said.

It was not until he watched a video of the East Beverly Lawn Chair team out of Massachusetts that he felt he found a concept that seemed to fit the bill.

“This was more my style. You didn’t have to dress up, and you didn’t need a lot of equipment,” he said. “Then I took it on as sort of a project.”

He recruited neighbors and friends, wrote several chants, and developed a training video that outlined the routines, at the same time realizing that perfection was not the ultimate goal.

“The nice thing about this situation is the more poorly executed and ridiculous you are, the better,” Fitzpatrick said. “There wasn’t a lot of stress about getting things right.”

This year, the drill team will consist of at least eight members, who will carry new aluminum chairs (courtesy of its first sponsor, Lawn Chair USA), chant, and execute their signature move, the “handstand.”

Fitzgerald said the group even has a special chant for the moment it spots Dunwoody Mayor Lynn Deutsch:

“Best in show is what we’ll win
‘Cause we’re friends with Mayor Lynn
We tried to call her Mayor Deutsch
But nothing really rhymes with Deutsch”

Anyone interested in more information can visit the group’s Facebook page and ask for permission to join.

While it’s all about the lawn chairs for the drill team, it’s all about the boots for the Twilight Twirlers, according to Kathy Prough, who heads up the group.

“These are ladies who just want to twirl so they can wear the boots,” Prough joked. “The boots are really cute.”

The group, which has been in existence for 20 years, consists of teachers, lawyers, and retirees with diverse backgrounds. Nobody has to have baton experience to join, just the desire to “get in a little bit of fitness and have some fun.”

Prough said the Dunwoody 4th of July Parade is the hands-down favorite because it’s so large and there are a lot of bands participating. She said the group also participates in the Atlanta St. Patrick’s Parade in Atlanta, the East Cobber Parade, Festival of Trees Parade in December, and the Tybee Island Festival.

This year, the team, wearing the aforementioned cute boots, will perform a patriotic medley that touches on all branches of the military. Prough said the group will be a mixture of Dunwoody parade veterans and newbies.

See Rough Draft’s guide to the Dunwoody 4th of July Parade below.

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