The Gloucester County Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department held the annual Christmas and Holiday parade virtually on Saturday. This year, the pandemic forced the parade to go virtual, spawning the first Mini Virtual Edition of the parade, with the theme “Hometown Holiday.” The event raised close to $400 for the local Bread for Life community food pantry.
Thirty-four community members, school groups, local businesses and Gloucester County departments decorated shoebox-sized floats. These floats were filmed in front of several different Main Street backdrops and included commentary from an emcee to make the event as authentic as possible. The parade debuted Saturday afternoon on the Parks, Recreation and Tourism website and social media pages.
On Sunday, all the parade entries were taken to Main Street for the public to view under a tent on the lawn of Split Enz Salon during the Main Street Business Open House event.
“We were shocked at the number of people that had seen the parade online and wanted to come see the floats for themselves,” said Katey Legg, Gloucester’s Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department Director.
Visitors were asked to place a coin in a jar next to each float to show their support and vote for the entry that they liked the most.
“We wanted to be able to get the community involved in the judging of these entries and also find a way to provide support toward a community entity that helps so many people,” said Legg.
Viewer’s Choice Winners were as follows:
—Overall Winner: Guinea Heritage Association (raising a total of $72.15);
—“All Natural” Winner: Gloucester Master Naturalists;
—“How COVID Can’t Steal Christmas” Winner: The Giving Garden;
—“Hometown Gloucester” Winner: The Gayle Family;
—“Movin’ Down Main” Winner: Gloucester Arts on Main;
—“My House” Winner: Kolonial Klowns;
—“On the Water” Winner: HCS Creates; and
—“Snow Glo” Winner: Landon Legg.
“We couldn’t be more pleased with how this event turned out,” Legg said. “We had so many in the community come up to us on Sunday voicing their appreciation for us coming up with a way to celebrate the holiday tradition despite the pandemic.”
The 2020 Christmas and Holiday Parade Mini-Virtual Edition will remain available to view by visiting www.gloucesterva.info/pr or www.facebook.com/GloPRT.