Don't Miss the Opportunity to March with Astronaut Buzz Aldrin in the National Cherry Blossom Parade!

Attention Festival Fans! The Festival has been awarded spaces for 18 people to march in the National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade. We have decided to give our fans the opportunity to win these spaces to march alongside legendary NASA astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the Festival's Mondo Spider and other personalities in the 100th Celebration of the National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade, Saturday April 14, 2012 in Washington, DC!

To win a space in this unforgettable festive event, which this year features Buzz Aldrin as Parade Grand Marshall, Katie Couric as co-host and Alex Trebek as parade route correspondent, we're asking Festival fans to submit their BEST creative entries for science- or STEM-related parade costumes or displays (such as marching with your robot, dressing up as an amoeba...). Winners must be available 8:30 am until 2:00 PM and be ready to show up rain or shine! There is no compensation for your participation in the parade.

The parade will be nationally televised with an estimated audience of 72 million viewers and more than 120,000 spectators on site cheering the parade on as it makes its way down historic Constitution Avenue!

In addition to Aldrin and the Mondo Spider, the Festival's 18 winners will have the chance to meet and march alongside such personalities as Ben Franklin, Thomas Edison, "Milli Mole" (the mascot of the American Chemical Society), and Life Technologies' "Dream Gene". Other celebrities participating in the event include Marie Osmond, and U.S. Olympians Kristi Yamaguchi and Benita Fitzgerald Mosely.

Don't miss the chance to submit your entry for this unique opportunity! Click on the link for more information to apply to be one of the eighteen people to be in our group. The deadline for the contest is April 1, 2012. Once again, we are looking for the BEST costume ideas out there. Please provide an image of your idea when you send in your entry.

Known as the nation's greatest springtime celebration, the Cherry Blossom Parade each year commemorates the arrival of spring in Washington, DC and the incredible gift of 3,000 cherry blossom trees bestowed on Washington by Tokyo, Japan in 1912.