Porch parade brings spirit to neighbourhoods
Proper virus guidelines stressed to those who attended festivities
The Grand Parade of the Niagara Grape and Wine Parade may have been cancelled, but that did not prevent parade organizers from bringing the parade to the people.
On Saturday, six neighbourhoods in St. Catharines were treated to a mini-grand Parade, the Meridian Porch Parade.
“When I found out we couldn’t have a parade, I just started thinking of other ways we could keep the parade spirit alive,” said Dorian Anderson, executive director of the Grape and Wine Festival.
“I remembered New Orleans — they do a porch parade during Mardi Gras and that was the inspiration, to create a way to keep the parade happening during Grape and Wine.
She said close to 20 neighbourhoods applied to be on the route and six were chosen.
One of the neighbourhoods was Countryside Drive. On Saturday, people decorated their houses, created their own Mr. Grape, Event in the Tent and wine tastings. The street was lined with people in purple, set up in their driveways or on their lawns.
“Today is already blowing my mind,” said Anderson. “I can’t believe that amount of spirit and the work people have put into this, it’s incredible. I’m almost overwhelmed at how amazing the neighbourhoods have been.”
After six months of lockdowns and COVID-19 stress and isolation, people were excited about doing something different, something social.
“A little bit of normal in a time that is not so normal,” said Stephanie Taylor as she waited for the parade to begin.
Said Rhiann Carlyle who was spending her day at the Countryside Drive celebration, “I feel this is great because I was really disappointed when Grape and Wine was cancelled this year.”
Mayor Walter Sendzik led the parade as Niagara Icedogs mascot Bones, Dunkin the River Lion and Knightro the Knight from Niagara College waved to the crowd. A fire truck, Community Care, Niagara Shine Club, all slowly made their way past the festive homes.
Each house kept to their 25 person-per-lot limit and stressed wearing masks. A responsibility to maintain social distance and COVID-19 rules was easy to spot with signage and masks indicating rules to be followed.
“We do have our social distance and ‘wear a mask’ sign everywhere. We want to keep it 25 per lawn which we stipulated to people, we have our numbers,” said Carlyle.
The sentiment was echoed along the route.
“We would normally be getting together,” said Rob Hitchcock,
“Tradition is the main thing, keeping it going and it keeps everyone sane.”
Footage was streamed on the Grape and Wine Facebook page and will remain posted.
The neighbourhood with the most spirit won an entry into next year’s Grand Parade and there were a few prizes for individual houses. About 300 homes took part in the event.
The City of St. Catharines and Meridian Credit Union partnered to make the event possible.
“This has been so much fun we are trying to figure out how we incorporate this into Grape and Wine forever because I think people really got excited about it,” said Anderson.