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Planning Home for Holidays parade isn't easy; Chamber, sponsors make it look that way |
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Front Page -
Front Page Story
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Written by Larry McGuire
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Saturday, 28 November 2009 |
Members of the A.J. Parise Youth Football League were among those with a float in last year's Home for the Holidays parade. This year's parade kicks off at 6 p.m. tonight. (Photo by Tom Chapin/The Punxsutawney Spirit)
PUNXSUTAWNEY — Rule No. 1 of the Home for the Holidays parade: There's only one star.
"The No. 1 thing to remember about a Christmas parade is that Santa Claus is the star of the show," said Jeff Curtis, the president of Punxsutawney Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. "Any last-minute units that would like to participate are welcome, but Santa is — without exception — the grand finale."
Regardless of the season, as you watch a parade, most people never realize the amount of work that goes into organizing this type of event.
Marlene Lellock, executive director of the Chamber, said the Home for the Holidays parade — now in its 18th year — first debuted under the Main Street program in 1991. The first sponsor was International Jensen.
She said planning the parade is always a challenge because of cold weather, and it is held at night.
"The initial call to organize the parade would come from the Chamber," Lellock said. "At that time, the sponsors would do all of the real work."
She said the early stages of the parade only involved sending letters to the past participants and drumming up interest to put units into the parade.
"In recent years, we've tried to get sponsors, and that has been more of a challenge, especially in this economy," Lellock said. "You hesitate to ask sponsors to do something like this."
Lellock added that the last two years, the Chamber has organized the parade itself.
"Last year, we had enough money left over from the previous sponsor, the Southside Business Group, that we were able to throw in what was needed and continue the parade ourselves," she said. "This year, we didn't want to ask anybody if we didn't have to."
Fund-raising events for this year's parade have included a 50/50 raffle and selling T-shirts.
"At the last minute, we did have a sponsor come forward — Punxsutawney Dental — to help with the cost of the parade, so that was helpful," Lellock said. "In the early stages of it, you just have to contact people, and get information out to the media to recruit participants."
Lellock said the majority of the work occurs the week before and the day of the parade.
"Unfortunately, people don't decide until the last minute that they are going to be in it," she said. "No matter how hard you try, you can't get them put their information in early.
"It is something we struggle with every year," Lellock said. "You have to get the parade lineup done, you have to know where units are going to go, and have the numbers on paper plates to give to the participants."
Lellock added that the parade organizers can only accept participants for so long and then cut it off.
"Every year, we have people show up at the parade lineup and ask if they can get into the parade," she said. "They're allowed to get in at the last minute at the end before Santa. The last-minute units can get into the parade, but they are not judged."
Lellock said after parade participants are organized, the search for judges begins.
"We always say that the judges get the best seats in the house on the big flatbed trailer that they sit on," she said.
The categories for judging the Home for the Holidays parade were set up when the parade was first established, although those have changed over the years. The prizes have stayed the same, though: $100 for first place, $50 for second, and $25 for third.
Based on their criteria, judges grade parade entries on a scale of one to 10.
Instead of announcing the winners at the community center or in Barclay Square, they will be announced in the lobby of the Pantall Hotel, where Santa Claus, Christmas music, hot chocolate, coffee and cookies will be available.
Lellock said it takes a lot of cooperation for the parade, from the borough, the fire department, police and REACT.
"It takes a village to organize and run a parade," Lellock said. "Police Chief Tom Fedigan coordinates all the groups that help with traffic control. The police have to come down and bag the meters and close the streets."
A few years ago, many people thought changing the day of the parade from a Friday to a Saturday would mean the end of it, but that hasn't been the case.
"There has never been an official count of how many watch it, but it has looked the same as when it was on Friday," Lellock said. "The number of units used to average 70, but it has dropped to 50, which is just enough, because that is about an hour-long parade."
Curtis moves the parade along, from its origin in the Punxy Plaza and through town. That's a job he inherited from the late Chuck Fellner and the American Legion.
"The Chamber organized it last year, and we'll do it the same way this year with assistance from the Rotary," he said, adding that one of the changes in the line-up has been that it starts at the plaza, which keeps Pine and Sycamore Streets open for traffic.
"One of the reasons we moved all the units to the Punxy Plaza is for safety," Curtis said. "It was so dark on those streets and made it difficult for participants to locate where their unit was staging."
Organizing a parade isn't that difficult, as there is a handbook passed down since the parade's inception in 1991.
This year, half of the fireworks were paid for by the vendor and local sponsors Ragley's True Value Just Ask Rental and Pennsylvania American Water Company.
"It is a whole community effort to pull this parade off," Lellock said. "If it wasn't for the help of the many volunteers, there wouldn't be a parade."
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