Welcome to the El Bekal Tin Lizzies' Shrine Unit

A Brief Synopsis

The El Bekal Shrine Tin Lizzie unit was originally created as a group within the Valencia Shrine Club in 1962 and was converted into a regular parade unit of El Bekal on Oct. 11, 1982. It was formed for the purpose of having some fun while promoting the El Bekal Shrine efforts and Shrine Hospitals for Children through participation in various holiday parades throughout Southern California. The distinctive Tin Lizzie "Model T" cars are widely recognized and enjoyed by the parade spectators, and are one of the first parade units that come to mind when someone mentions the "Shrine". The Tin Lizzies enjoy parading and the unit participates in more parades than any other El Bekal unit.

The Lizzies are real parade crowd pleasers with their antic filled driving style and wide variety of horns and other noisemakers. Their size also makes them particularly attractive to the children along the parade route. The El Bekal Lizzie unit is limited by its by-laws to 21 active regular members and cars for parade safety reasons plus other associate members who can act as substitute drivers. The unit currently participates in about eight to ten parades each year, with usually 8 to 12 cars at each parade.

The El Bekal Tin Lizzie cars are required to look generally alike, specifically as small black "Model T" replicas with red trim plus one "tow truck". This look-alike strategy was originally done to enhance the chances of winning a parade participant prize/trophy, but since we have several trophies and no place to display them, we rarely actively compete for the parade prizes anymore.

The Tin Lizzie Ladies are also an important part of the unit, organizing various non-parade parties and events for the group as well as being with the guys at pre-parade breakfasts and after-parade parties. When the Ladies are found as a group among the parade spectators, custom dictates the Lizzie drivers to briefly stop as a group and acknowledge the Ladies with their noisemakers. All in all, the Lizziers have a lot of fun, both in parades promoting the Shrine cause and together at our many non-parade events.

Dale Edwards Rev. 1.3, July 28,2006

(Webmaster note: Parade Information is being set up in a new section for 2008. Information will be available soon)