The Mathews County Christmas Parade, which was scheduled for Dec. 12, has since been canceled for this year because of COVID-19 concerns.

Parade chair Lynda Smith Greve said she and the other two members of her committee had been making plans for the parade, since over 30 organizations and individuals who participated in the parade last year had expressed an interest in doing it again this year, while only six of those she contacted gave their regrets.

In order to create as safe an environment as possible, Greve said plans were to create a longer route to give people more room to spread out and to arrange for parking areas so people could watch from their own vehicles. She said she had been prepared to cancel the event if virus numbers continued to rise or participation fell dramatically.

The Mathews County Visitor and Information Center, which hosts the event, approved her proposal, said Greve, but the Mathews County Board of Supervisors expressed some concern over how she would enforce health department guidelines if numbers continued to rise in the days leading up to the parade. She said they were specifically concerned about enforcing social distancing and mask requirements.

But Greve said the only thing anyone and any business could do, given the circumstances, would be to request and stress that people stay six feet apart and wear a mask by putting up signs.

“I can’t and will not ask any volunteers to try to enforce it when no other agency or business even has that authority,” said Greve in a letter to prospective parade participants. “I was hoping common sense would play a big part of it as well as these simple adjustments.”

While some people suggested a “reverse parade” option in which parade participants would line up while cars drove past, Greve said she didn’t feel there would be enough participation in such an event, so she chose not to go with that option.

Greve said that, in addition to not being able to guarantee that all participants would wear masks or social distance, another factor in her decision to cancel the parade was that there wasn’t enough time to make all the changes and arrangements that would have been necessary and still have time to get the required permits and make the plans.

“If I had had more time, I would have gone to the board of supervisors with my plan, which I thought was a good plan, and they could have chimed in,” said Greve. “I know they wanted to have it, but were just concerned about possible COVID spread.”