We look forward to seeing you at the next parade:
Saturday, December 9, 2023 @ 11 AM
2023 GRAND MARSHAL
Jaime Cerreta
3TV News Anchor
Jaime Cerreta loves Arizona. A true hometown girl whose family’s roots are deep-seated in the Valley of the Sun, Jaime envisioned a career in journalism from the time she was a little girl. Since then, she has been passionately pursuing her dreams.
Jaime is a successful product of the Scottsdale Unified School District, including attending Chaparral High School. After graduating from Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Broadcast Journalism, she went on to build her professional resume with her first TV job as a one-man-band reporter in Joplin, MO, before moving to Springfield, MO; Beaumont, TX; and Oklahoma City, OK. In 2013, she returned home to become part of Arizona’s Family.
The responsibility of her craft is one Jaime does not take lightly. She gets in the trenches for the sake of credible storytelling! She’s covered hurricanes, ice storms, blizzards, tornadoes — and even reported live from inside a massive monsoon dust storm for Arizona’s Family. That viral video is worth a Google. Jaime is proud to have won several Emmy Awards with her Arizona’s Family team for their coverage of monsoon storms, protests in Downtown Phoenix and the WM Phoenix Open.
During her six and a half years anchoring Good Morning Arizona weekends, she created her passion project — a weekly franchise dubbed “Jaime’s Local Love.” This program shines the spotlight on Arizona’s local business owners. She is greatly inspired by their perseverance, dedication and true love of their work. Jaime’s admiration of the entrepreneurial spirit stems from her own family — the Cerretas have been handmaking candy at the Cerreta Candy Company in Glendale for more than 50 years!
Jaime has worked evenings, weekends and mornings at Arizona’s Family and is currently on-air weekday evenings. She is honored to do the work she loves, in the city she loves, with the people she loves.
“It’s a privilege to work in the community I grew up in,” she says. “I feel like one of the luckiest people in TV news. I truly love the people I work with and the people I serve.”
When not behind the anchor desk or traversing the town uncovering the next hidden gem to highlight on “Jaime’s Local Love,” you can find Jaime checking out a new hot spot in town, supporting her sister and brother-in-law’s Loot N’ Booty BBQ team, hanging with her INCREDIBLE parents, or making waves at the nearest beach — preferably in San Diego or Rocky Point!
HONORARY GRAND MARSHAL DON MELLON
Don Mellon moved to Arizona in 1974. In 1980, he opened his first McDonald’s franchise. He received the Ronald Award – San Diego Region in 1981, was named the Chamber of Commerce Man of the Year in 2003, was McDonald’s Owner of the Year and received the Ray Kroc Golden Arch Award in 2005, Business of the Year award in 2007, Phoenix Business Journal – Small Business of the Year award in 2008, and named a Luke Air Force Base Honorary Commander in 2010. He is a Rotarian leader and recipient of the Tin Man Heart Award in 2012 and Men of the Year Meals of Joy Award in 2018. His family was awarded the Most Giving Family in 2008 by the SW Valley Chamber of Commerce. After opening and operating 21 McDonald’s restaurants across the Valley, Don retired in 2020. He said all the McDonald’s he owned belonged to God. What he thought was a part-time, dead-end job 50 years ago, became a passion where God was glorified. In 2012, Don, along with Dr. Walt Kallestad and Mayor Weiers, organized the first Hometown Christmas Parade. He resides in Buckeye, with his wife Dorothy, has two sons, and nine grandchildren, and gets fired up about Jesus.
HONORARY GRAND MARSHAL DR. WALT KALLESTAD
Dr. Walt Kallestad grew up living in a Pastor’s home. Following his graduation from Luther Theological Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, he served as an ordained Lutheran Pastor at Community Church of Joy (now Dream City Church) for 38 years. During that time, the church grew to several thousand participants, developed a 187-acre campus with a K-12 Christian School, senior living center, home for special needs young adults, fitness center, multi-family housing community, numerous restaurants, and became a teaching church to more than 50,000 pastors and leaders around the world. Walt has a tender-hearted love and appreciation for pastors, church staffers, and their families. He came to Community Church of Joy in Glendale with a clarion call and passion to build a church for people who didn’t go to church. He continues to seek out marketplace leaders and servants who desperately need the Lord. Walt is also involved in mentoring pastors and business leaders, as well as running a gas and oil company supplying gasoline and diesel to Mexico. In 2012, Walt, along with Don Mellon and Mayor Weiers, organized the first Hometown Christmas Parade. Walt recently married an amazing godly woman. He has two adult children with his late wife and three sensational granddaughters!
Event proceeds and donations go to support:
Here's How YOU Can Get Involved...
Donate food to Hope for Hunger or sign up your Business or Organization to become a collection spot!
