It may be Christmas time, but the organizers of the Swallows Day Parade are already thinking ahead.

San Juan Capistrano residents and community leaders Bill and Joan Cvengros will serve as grand marshals for the 2012 Swallows Day Parade on Saturday, March 24, according to a press release from the Fiesta de las Golondrinas and San Juan Capistrano Fiesta Association.

Other dignitaries include Senior San Juan John “Fish” Fischle and Miss Fiesta Nancy Ingham. Junior dignitaries are representatives of the Boys & Girls Club of Capistrano Valley and include Cristian Marron as Jr. Senor San Juan and Hilda De La Cruz as Jr. Miss Fiesta.

Bill and Joan Cvengros have lived in San Juan Capistrano 19 years, but fell in love with the city and started coming to the Swallows Day Parade long before that time. They are strongly linked with the San Juan community and support the Mission Preservation Board, Boys & Girls Club of Capistrano Valley and the J.F. Shea Therapeutic Riding Center. 

Fischel and Ingham can already be seen around town at various events in their black and white attire and sashes as ambassadors of the city of San Juan Capistrano and Fiesta Association.

Junior dignitaries Marron and De La Cruz are both eighth-graders at Marco Forster Middle School in San Juan. Selected by Boys & Girls Club’s Executive Director James Littlejohn, Cristian and Hilda are longtime club members, outstanding students, participants in AVID and community leaders. They have lived in San Juan Capistrano most of their lives and happen to be good friends.

The grand marshals and dignitaries will ride among 120 parade entries featured in the 54^th Swallows Day Parade in downtown San Juan Capistrano. Fiesta de las Golondrinas - meaning Festival of the Swallows - activities pay tribute to the annual return of the swallows and San Juan Capistrano’s Spanish, Western and Juaneno Indian heritage.