Not too late to enter annual Christmas Parade
WAYNESBURG – A week from today, many of us will be either rummaging through the refrigerator looking for a favorite leftover Thanksgiving morsel or participating in the other post-turkey day tradition of shopping on Black Friday.
But don’t be lulled into thinking that buying a flat-screen TV or whatever else advertisers tell us is popular this year constitutes the beginning of the 2018 holiday season. Forget Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It’s the first weekend in December that traditionally kicks off the holiday season in Greene County.
The annual Holiday Open House in downtown Waynesburg will be held Friday, Nov. 30, followed by the traditional Greene County Chamber of Commerce-sponsored Downtown Waynesburg Christmas Parade at 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 1.
And for Melody Longstreth, executive director of the Chamber, her holiday would be incomplete if she didn’t have to organize the parade year-after-year, she said with a hint of sarcasm.
“I have been working this parade since the mid-1980s,” she said. “Although there are many headaches that go with making sure all the units are where they should be, I would not give it up. How could I when I look at the number of people who line High Street and see the smiles on children’s faces?”
However, if the 2018 version of the Waynesburg Christmas Parade is to be as successful as ones in years past, those who plan to be in the parade need to adhere to a tight entry deadline.
The early entry deadline is today (Nov. 16) with an entry fee of $10 per unit. Late registration entries will be accepted until Nov. 21 with an entry fee of $20 per unit. No entries after Nov. 21 or on the day of parade will be accepted, Longstreth said.
Although time is of the essence, anyone wishing to participate in the parade and who did not receive an application is asked to contact the Chamber office at 724-627-5926 or email info@greenechamber.org.
Longstreth said historically, the parade features approximately 100 units and lasts for about an hour and a half.
Miss Rain Day 2018 Loren Schroyer and the Chamber’s 2018 Distinguished Service Award winners, Sister Audrey Quinn of Waynesburg and the family of the late William “Bill” Gensler, along with a representative from the 2018 McCracken Legacy Award winner, EQT, will serve as the Grand Marshals and lead the parade from High and Richhill streets to its conclusion at High and Cumberland streets.
“I also want to note that the National Anthem will be sung by Jaclyn Smith, a 16-year-old girl from Mt. Morris. She sang it at Veterans Day events and I had to have her sing it for our parade,” Longstreth said.
Longstreth acknowledged she had considered banning candy throwing into the crowd lining the streets because of safety issues.
“But I am not. I just hope parents are diligent and don’t let youngsters run into the street in front of vehicles,” she said.
Motorists are reminded to by attentive to posted detours in the Richhill, West and College street areas.
Route 19 traffic will also be detoured from noon to 3:30 p.m. and a detour route will be available for traffic beginning at McCracken Pharmacy.