Earth Day finally got its due Saturday in Lawrence, and this time Mother Nature couldn’t have been more cooperative.

Delayed a week because of bad weather, this year’s Earth Day parade featured more than two dozen entries celebrating the environment and urging its protection.

Among those entries was a large palm tree made of paper that was pulled along the Massachusetts Street parade route by Anna McCoy, 53, lead teacher and program director at Montessori Children’s House. McCoy said she made the tree because youngsters at the Children’s House had been studying the rain forest.

McCoy also said she hoped Earth Day celebrations were bringing more attention to the importance of protecting nature.

“I think the more attention we get the more people we’ll draw, and that always leads to more education,” she said.

In the afternoon, dozens of people gathered in South Park to listen to music and pick up brochures about environmental matters.

The Earth Day celebration was only one of many events Saturday in the Lawrence area.

Members of Girl Scout Troop 630, clad in decorated lawn bags, walk down Seventh Street between Massachussets and New Hampshire streets as part of the Earth Day parade rescheduled from last week. The Deerfield third-grade troop was among about 100 participants in Saturday morning's parade.

At Clinton Lake, Army ROTC members from more than 20 universities throughout the Midwest competed in this year’s Kansas University Best Ranger Buddy Team Competition. Teams of two took part in timed contests such as stripping and reassembling weapons, a vertical wall climb and navigating through a grenade assault course.

Joe Buck, 21, and Jamie Stein, 19, both ROTC members from Western Illinois University in Macomb, Ill., took a breather while waiting their turn to climb the nearly 30 foot vertical wall.

The worst part of the day, they said, was carrying 40 pounds of gear during the six-mile hike to the lake along the South Lawrence Trafficway. The most enjoyable, they said, would be the grenade toss later in the day. The grenades don’t explode, but sound like a cap gun going off, ROTC leaders said.

“You get tired and it gets harder as you go through the day,” Buck said.

“It looks easy but you get up there and you have the anxiety and the blood starts pumping and you have to calm yourself down,” Stein said of the competition.

Back downtown, about 100 people participated in the five kilometer AIDS Walk fund-raiser sponsored by the Douglas County AIDS Project. The walk took a route through downtown, East Lawrence and Old West Lawrence. Participants pledged at least $35.

“A lot of people walk because they know someone who has AIDS or someone who has died,” said Lauren Yoshinobu Bushkirk, walk chairwoman and DCAP board member.

KU students Annie Himmelreich, left, a Halifax, Pa., freshman, and Sarah Colteryahn, a Stillwell senior, lead the Queers and Allies parade on Massachusetts Street. Saturday's second downtown parade drew about 50 people, gaining additional followers before its end.

Shortly after the Earth Day Parade, Kansas University’s Queers and Allies student group sponsored a downtown parade in which about 40 people marched for gay rights and recognition.

In McLouth people gathered for the fifth annual Patriots Day parade to honor local military veterans and those who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. About 25 veterans rode in the parade, said Cliff Weeks, parade co-chairman.

The parade also featured several Jefferson County fire trucks and the playing of “Amazing Grace” on bagpipes.

“I tell you, it brings a tear to your eye,” Weeks said. “This is just good old small town patriotism.”