I love a parade

Since coming to Wisconsin one of the major highlights of the holiday season has been attending and volunteering at the annual Abbotsford Christmas parade.

This year was no different and was extra special because the parade was marking its 50th anniversary.

I was working at a different newspaper 26 years ago when I attended the parade for the first time. I remember desperately trying to stay warm as my now wife and I watched the floats going by.

By the following year, I was working in Medford and was volun-told by my wife who was working at TP Printing at the time to help push a float. I am fairly certain that I wasn’t given a choice and simply was told when I had to be at St. Bernard’s church in Abbotsford and to do what people told me to do.

There is something really neat about pushing the floats down the parade route and seeing the smiling faces of the crowds. My hip joints don’t give me the option to push a float anymore, but over the years I have helped out in a variety of ways wearing costumes or taking pictures so that the younger and healthier folks who work at our sister paper the Tribune Phonograph can be part of it.

Over the years, participating in the parade has become a family tradition with my children getting excited each fall about what costumed character they will be. This year was no different, except that rather than being under a float or behind mask I was walking the parade route taking pictures of the hundreds of people in attendance. As usual I saw a lot of familiar faces as Medford area folks traveled down Hwy 13 to take part in the parade either as a spectator or participant.

As someone who has been involved with the organizing and running of community events, it is staggering to think of the amount of work and coordination that goes into making the parade happen each year and about how much of that work is done by a small handful of people who measure their service in decades.

Many people who attend events think that they just spontaneously happen. As if the morning of the parade, organizers open the garage doors and people just show up to help out. They equally think that afterward everything magically is sorted and put away for the following year.

They don’t appreciate the people behind the scenes who sacrifice time with their families and away from their primary jobs to make events like the Christmas parade happen. People see the small army of costumed volunteers and think, gosh that is nice to see so many people helping out, and it is, but they don’t see the small number of people working into the early morning hours making sure things are where they need to be.

While the rest of us are off sipping hot chocolate or gathering with friends, the event organizers and their families see many more hours of work ahead before they can sleep. Beyond just giving these organizers thanks and praise for doing a fantastic job of bringing light and laughter into the darkest times of the year, all of us need to do our part in finding out how we can help out.

Rather than posting criticism on social media after the event, or telling people what they “should have done,” take time to ask what you can do to help in the months leading up to the event. Be part of the army who help move the mountain one pebble at a time rather than critiquing the person carrying the boulder on their shoulders without anyone to help them.

Without people willing to do their part and help out in organizing and running activities, events will fade away and communities will lose the chance of coming together in fun and fellowship.

I can’t imagine a holiday season without the Abbotsford Christmas Parade and my hat goes off to all those who do the thankless task of bringing it together year after year.

Brian Wilson is News Editor at The Star News.