Smiling faces

While roaming around the shadowy streets of Abbotsford on Saturday night, I came across Brandon and Nicole Homeyer of Medford along with their young children sitting on a street corner smiling.

At least I assume their children were smiling, it was hard to tell under the scarves, coats and other bundled clothing to ward off the frigid winter temperatures. But, if they were anything like the dozens of others along the downtown streets, their grins would be massive, even if they were sitting on a corner in the dark, in the cold.

Running into people on dark, cold street corners in cities that are not your own, is not particularly normal behavior. This interaction makes more sense if you remember that Saturday was the 52nd annual Abbotsford Christmas Parade. They were there to watch the parade and I was there to take pictures of the parade and the people watching it.

I have not missed a Christmas parade since I came to Wisconsin in 1995. My first experience with it was going along with my, at the time, soon-to-be wife Kim, who was working at the Tribune-Phonograph. Members of the O’Leary family, who own The Tribune-Phonograph and The Star News, have been long-time supporters and organizers of the parade spending countless hours over the years working on it all year long. Staff members, and by extension their staff member’s families, got sucked into the annual excitement.

After watching that first year, I was volun-told by my wife to help push floats or help out in other ways. In more recent years I have moved from being under floats to wearing costumes as needed or pitching in to help take pictures and allow the younger and slimmer staff members at our sister papers to take more active roles.

From the time our children were old enough to sit on a float, they have been part of the parade as costumed characters. This year Alex did double duty, walking through the parade in costume and then coming back and helping push a float through for a second loop. In the quick change he apparently didn’t tie his shoe tight enough and it came off as he was pushing the float along. Not being one to let something as missing a shoe slow him down, Alex kept on going until there was a pause a block later where a costumed character walking near the float handed him the shoe to be put back on. My daughter, Beth, also continued her streak of not missing a parade, being all smiles even if her float had to be towed in from breaking down due to the cold.

It takes a small army of people to put on the annual parade and it takes commitment and dedication for its organizers to come back year after year. The challenge is finding people who are willing to step up and take that challenge.

Somewhere along the way there has been a shift in mindset from those of us who were raised to see something that needed to be done and do it, to today’s seeming norm of waiting to be specifically asked. People in this later group, I have noticed, are among the first ones to complain about not having enough things in the community, or to post to social media about how things “should have been done.”

I worry about the future of events like the Abbotsford Christmas Parade as well as the dozens of other events like it, held year-round in rural communities throughout the state. Community events help define communities into special places to live and grow, rather than just being an accident of geography. In order to keep communities strong, individuals need to step up and take an active role.

Not all of us can push a float on a frosty night, but we can contribute in other ways and pitch in a helping hand wherever it is needed. And perhaps, most importantly, we can bring others with us and keep the good times rolling as long as we can.

Brian Wilson is News Editor at The Star News.