15 new citizens mark Fourth of July in Old City

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Caleb Pierre moved to the United States from Haiti about seven years ago.

He's one of 15 people who took the Oath of Allegiance in front of Independence Hall, officially becoming a U.S. citizen.

"Philadelphia welcomed me in a good way because I just became a citizen and I like it," said Pierre.

"It's the Fourth of July and I'm a citizen now - on this day so I'm so happy about that," said Tulasha Kuile.

After the ceremonies, bands, floats and dancers marched through the nation's most historic square mile.

"Where else should you be on the Fourth of July than Philly?" said Tiffany Tabatchnick.

Tabatchnick celebrated with her 3-year-old daughter Olive and her mother-in-law, who happens to be a middle school U.S. history teacher.

"It's amazing, it's wonderful. I have so much to bring back to my students," said Meryl Tabatchnick.

The showers that fell during the Independence Day parade soaked the 6,000 participants and the spectators.

Some parade-goers came prepared but others didn't.

Either way the people we spoke with still had plenty of fun.

Getha Chappali and her family stuck it out. After all, they came all the way from Virginia to see the parade.

"We wanted to see the history...my kids never visited Philadelphia so this is their first time," said Chappali.

On the Ben Franklin Parkway, rain didn't dampen the fun at the 'Party on the Parkway.'

"It's wonderful! We drove down early this morning, no traffic on the turnpike, thank God. We're here enjoying everything that's going on," said Keisha Crymes-Howard.

"We kind of didn't pay attention to the forecast so we didn't know how bad it was going to be...Good thing we had the umbrella in the car ready," said Nate Branine.