An elderly Islander collapsed while marching in the Strawberry Festival parade and was transported to a Seattle hospital by Vashon medics.

The man, a participant in the Color Guard, was carrying a weapon and marching with several others when he started to stagger, said Anthony DeNatale, who rushed out to help him.

“I grabbed him and got him to the car,” said DeNatale, who used to work as a volunteer firefighter in Bonney Lake. The man turned to DeNatale and said, “Thank God you showed up. I said, ‘I’m not going to let you go down,’” DeNatale recalled.

George Brown, assistant chief at Vashon Island Fire & Rescue, said the man was taken to a Seattle hospital. Because of confidentiality rules, he couldn’t comment about his condition, except to say he was transported “without further incident.”