During the 500 Festival Volunteer Program presented by Citizens Energy Group Appreciation Day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, 500 Festival CEO Bob Bryant and AES 500 Festival Parade Co-Chair Mark Eutsler hold a plaque containing a pair of wooden shoes like those worn by members of the Holland, Michigan HS Marching Dutchman Band to commemorate Eutsler’s more than a quarter-century as parade co-chair and 35 years as a 500 Festival volunteer. Eutsler told Bryant his earliest childhood memories of the parade include the distinct sound of the wooden shoes on the downtown Indianapolis streets and on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the Indy 500 Parade of Bands preceding the race each year, and how the sound was muffled when the band marched onto the checkered carpet that covered one block of Pennsylvania Street curb to curb. The Marching Dutchman band has made several appearances in both events since the 1960s.
