Double DD Meats owner Kim Nygard will be the grand marshal of the Friday, July 22 Tour de Terrace parade.

A family-run business, Double DD Meats began operations in Mountlake Terrace in 1955, just one year after the city was incorporated. The owners were John Dallas and Dan Murray (the Ds in Double DD). Nygard’s father, Les Palaniuk, began working at Double DD in 1957, and eventually purchased the meat market from Murray in the late 1970s following Dallas’ death.

Born and raised in Stanwood, Kim Palaniuk began working at the Double DD counter. In 1990, she  married Tom Nygard, a dairy farmer in Stanwood. Soon after, Double DD was destroyed in an arson fire that burned down multiple buildings in this area. Kim and her husband then moved to Ferndale to work on their dairy farm while Double DD was being rebuilt.

In 1997, Kim and Tom decided to sell their farm and Kim went back to work beside her parents at Double DD. Her dad was always busy in the back, cutting meat while her mom could be found organizing sauces on the front shelves. Eventually, Kim bought the store from her dad at the end of 2014.

With help from her family — including sons Justin and Jeremy — and her employees, she has expanded the business, adding thousands of sauces to the shelves and increased the number of employees by more than 30.

“Anybody that knows Kim, knows she rarely takes time off,” Tour de Terrace organizers noted in announcing her selection as grand marshal. “She can be reliably found rearranging and adding to her large selection of sauces and seasonings, making space for a new sauce she brought in from local and international vendors.”

The three-day Tour de Terrace community festival, affiliated with Seafair, kicks off Friday, July 22, with the parade, which winds along 56th Avenue West. It includes Seafair pirates and clowns, drill teams, dancers, floats, trucks, classic cars and more.

The parade travels along 56th Avenue West from 234th Street, north to 222nd Street and Evergreen Playfield. Everyone should expect road closures along that route well into the evening.

Among the Tour de Terrace highlights are live music and entertainment, a beer garden, food booths, pancake breakfast, street fair, carnival, and the classic car, truck and motorcycle show. (Car show is Saturday only: 9 a.m.-3 p.m.) The fireworks show will light up the sky over Tour de Terrace just after 10 p.m. Saturday, July 23. The festival continues on Sunday, July 24, with more live music, food and activities.

For more information about Tour de Terrace including the musical lineup and volunteering opportunities, visit www.tourdeterrace.org.