PRESS RELEASE
City of Porterville
291 N. Main Street
Porterville, CA 93257
For more information contact:
Yuriko Velarde, Administrative Analyst
yvelarde@ci.porterville.ca.us
November 8, 2022
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CITY OF PORTERVILLE PARTNERS WITH SKYDIVE ELSINORE FOR VETERANS DAY PARADE
The 104th annual Porterville Veterans Day Parade, presented by American Legion Post 20, will be held on Friday, November 11th beginning at 10 a.m. in Downtown Porterville. The annual Veterans Day Run & Walk will also take place prior to the parade at 7:30 a.m. for the 5K and 10K run and walks. KSEE24 will again broadcast the parade beginning at 10:00 a.m. The City of Porterville is proud to be part of such a patriotic community, which continuously pays tribute to its Veterans, making the Porterville Veterans parade one of the largest in the Central Valley and the longest-running in the country.
This year’s parade will include a special tribute before the start of the parade. The City has partnered with Skydive Elsinore (SDE) to say thank you to all who have served in the Armed Forces by coordinating a skydive landing on Main Street by Jay Stokes, a SDE military trainer. SDE has been operating since 1959 and has a training facility located in Porterville, which is a registered drop zone utilized exclusively for military airborne training and is cleared by the U.S. Special Operations Command for military parachuting.
Right before the parade starts, Jay Stokes will be landing with a 2,500-square foot American flag in front of City Hall. Jay Stokes, a Chief Warrant Officer 4, was in the United States Army Special Forces for 24 years. Jay has been jumping for 47 years and has accumulated over 27,000 jumps. In addition to his military and civilian jumping, Jay is a former President of the United States Parachute Association, the governing body for skydiving in the U.S. He was inducted into the International Skydiving Museum and Hall of Fame in 2018 and is a 5-time Guinness world record holder for most parachute jumps in 24-hours. His current record set in 2006 is 640-jumps in 24-hours. The City of Porterville is honored to be able to pay tribute to all Veterans, past and present.
