Kazoos are not the instrument of choice for most Fourth of July parade marching bands. Yet for 35 years, one band has marched the streets of Evanston sounding off with nothing other than spirit and kazoos.

The Evanston Marching Kazoo Band is a community-run Fourth of July parade tradition. The band this year consisted of 180 members, a record number of participants, all from the same neighborhood which straddles the border of Evanston and Skokie.

This year, the band celebrated its 35th anniversary, marching down Central Street in Sunday’s Fourth of July Parade. Jack Callahan, 68, founded the group in 1975. He said the kazoo band was inspired by the Northwestern marching band’s halftime maneuvers.

“We’re as good as they are, we just can’t play music,” Callahan said.

Between frequent bouts of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” kazoo harmonies and “USA!” chants, band members alternated three marching maneuvers, all of which were diagrammed on the back of their matching T-shirts. As the band chanted, community members lining Central Street sang along.

“This is the longest Fourth of July parade in the country,” Callahan said. “It’s the best for community involvement and participation. That’s the point of it.”

Jane Zera, 35, said that the band inspires community pride and tradition.

“It started because our neighbor decided that everyone could play the kazoo,” Zera said. “Now, it’s become a family tradition that has been around for 35 years. I’m 35. I’ve been doing this my whole life.”

Anje Cluxton, also 35, has been marching for 25 years.

“It’s our neighborhood coming together on our favorite holiday, ” Cluxton said. “It’s the fact that our community gets together to celebrate it and march for the kazoo band. It’s been happening for so long that it’s most of our families’ traditions.”

The band performs each year in the Fourth of July parade and has appeared in Chicago’s St. Patrick’s Day parade, as well as a parade in Savannah, Ga.

“Now, the next generation is taking over from our parents’ generation,” Zera said. She said the band is being passed down to second- and third-generation family members, much like her own children, who marched in the parade along with her.

Bobby Schaefer, 29, stood out among the raucous band by dressing up in stars-and-stripes boxer shorts, suspenders and a leather aviator cap.

“It’s been passed down from my dad. I’m just living up to the family name,” Schaefer said.

“It’s a fun parade, a fun holiday, and I enjoy all the smiles of the people,” Schaefer said. “It makes me light up inside.” Ben Breuner is a student in the journalism division of Northwestern University’s National High School Institute.