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With the city's 54th Annual Puerto Rican Day Parade right around the corner, Nestor Renta Junior began his yearly ritual Friday, draping the hoods of cars with the country's flag.

"A lot of people like to set up their cars put flags on windows and stickers and represent they're Puerto Rican. Sometimes they are not even Puerto Rican. They like to have fun with everybody and have a good time," said Renta Junior.

Renta, Jr. works out of his father's Bronx variety store. Flags there are sold by the thousands in the weeks before the city's largest parade. It's also a place where anything emblazoned with the one star and three red stripes of Puerto Rico -- including bikinis -- fly off the shelves. All of the merchandise symbols of a proud people with a proud heritage.

"Doing that every year we just like to say we're here we're standing tall," said one Bronx resident.

As people prepare themselves and their cars, organizers are busy making sure all the floats will be ready for the millions that are expected to line Fifth Avenue Sunday from 44th Street to 79th Street to watch the more than 80,000 people expected to march.

But it doesn't just take man power to make the parade a reality. It takes money -- and lots of it. Organizers say it costs a couple of million dollars to put it all together, most of it raised through donations.

This year's theme is the environment.

"We are celebrating the natural beauty of Puerto Rico, so we have a joint effort with Sierra Club and Conservation Trust. We're going to start educating our community about how to protect our environment," said Puerto Rican Day Parade Chair Madelyn Lugo.

NY1's parent company, Time Warner Cable, is among the many organizations sponsoring a float in this year's parade.