An elaborate celebration of Canada's 150th Birthday made its way down streets in Kipling on Canada Day. Among the crowd of appreciative onlookers were excited kids ready to pounce on the candy that they knew would soon be flying through the air towards them.
Although Kipling's Canada Day Parade featured many of the kinds of entries that one might expect...there were some surprises. For example, a group of calm-looking cows that made their way along the Parade Route with an air of almost 'regal' dignity drew a number of compliments from on-lookers.
Dawn Manns, who together with her husband Dan and the other committee members (Brian and Teena Manns and Dana Sproat) noted that work on the parade began some time ago.
“We started talking about this in March or April. Because we knew that the Bobby Vargo Ball Tournament was already scheduled to take place on Canada Day, the Kipling and District Lions Club decided that we wanted to add to the celebration with a parade. We went around to all of the businesses and had a very good response. Then, people began to contact us about putting an entry into the parade. For example, Manny Baumann called and asked if he could bring his cows in for the parade. It was great to get this kind of response from people!”
The quality of the various entries made it difficult to choose a “winner”. But, as Dawn points out...organizers worked to ensure that the entries would be judged by individuals who could be truly objective about their decision.
“We picked two visitors from Ontario to judge the entries,” explains Dawn. “One of these two people was a senior Lions Club member. The other person was here to visit family. We chose these two individuals to act as judges because they didn't know any of the people that had put each of the various entries into the parade. That way, people could have some confidence that the judging was fair and impartial.”
She adds that “The Red Hats got the award for having the best float. And, Olivia Beresh won the prize for having the best-decorated bike.”
Along with Lions Club members and others that worked hard to make the parade a success, Dawn notes that she also had help from someone who has organized a few successful parades herself.
“Jill Lowe from Kennedy came up and asked if I would like to have some help organizing the 'line-up' for the parade. That was huge! It was awesome of her to step up and help us out the way that she did.
As the floats made their way past the spectators...comments heard were overwhelmingly positive. As one on-looker declared:
“That sure was a good parade!”
