Annual Palm Desert Golf Cart Parade Steps Off at 1 p.m.

The 49th annual Palm Desert Golf Cart Parade will make its way down El Paseo today.

The event will include a pancake breakfast, golf expo and cart show, along with children's activities. Frank Sinatra's widow Barbara will serve as grand marshal for the parade, which starts at 1 p.m. and will go west on El Paseo from San Luis Rey Avenue to Ocotillo Drive.

"I am thrilled to be a part of this valley-wide event and look forward to spending the day with this wonderful community I call my home," Barbara Sinatra said.

More than 25 years ago, Sinatra started raising funds to open a facility that would provide counseling for children who'd been physically, sexually and emotionally abused. The nonprofit Barbara Sinatra Children's Center opened on the Eisenhower Medical Center campus in Rancho Mirage in 1986, and has helped more than 18,000 children up to age 18, according to its website.

The Sinatras were married from 1976 until the entertainer's death in 1998.

For more information, call the Palm Desert Area Chamber of Commerce at (760) 346-6111 or go to www.golfcartparade.com.

—City News Service