Light up the night
Richmond might well fit the definition of a parade town. The town’s most famous parade is the St. Patrick’s parade which was first held back in 1877 and has evolved into the second biggest Irish parade in the province. Canada Day parades have similarly drawn 12,000 visitors or more to line the streets.
As for Christmas parades, they haven’t been held for quite a while, but that’s going to change dramatically this year as the town is going to see its first ever nighttime parade on Saturday, Dec. 4.
The idea was conceived about a year ago explains Jerry Badger, former mayor of Cleveland.
“When the Christmas tree in René Thibault Park was lit last year, someone suggested that it would be a nice touch to have Santa arrive to ceremoniously light up the tree,” he says.
A follow-up to that passing comment eventually occurred ten months later, at the end of October, when half a dozen people including Joanne Bourbeau, Daniel Bourbeau, Louis Carrignan, Hélène Ménard, Kathy St. Cyr, and G Badger got together to plan a parade so that Santa could arrive in style this year to light up the tree.
“We felt that a parade could be a way to draw the community together,” he continues, “an event to give our collective spirit a boost after the last two years we’ve had. Christmas is the season of lights and the idea of a nighttime parade flowed from that. We are inviting anyone who wants to take part to do so. The only stipulation is that your vehicle must be illuminated in some way. As much as possible we’re asking people to run their lights off batteries rather than generators.”
As covid has now rendered normal, the group has been using social media both to hold meetings on Zoom and to make use of You-tube to publicize the event. The response has been very positive.
“All five municipalities that make up the Richmond area got on board with the idea from the start, and all contributed to it,” Jerry says. “The Chamber of Commerce has also gotten on board and Sylvain Cadorette was especially helpful. The firemen will be putting a truck in the parade, and the Sûreté du Québec will be entering four cars. Organizations like the 4H, Expo Richmond, and the Knights of Columbus all expressed interest in taking part, and we’ve heard from a number of individuals who indicated they’ll be there with vehicles ranging from four-wheelers to farm tractors and trucks.”
Those taking part will meet at the staging area in front of Guitabec in Richmond’s industrial park where they’ll be placed in order. The fire truck, to permit it to speed off immediately in case of an emergency, will be either at the head of the parade or at the tail. At 6:30, fully lit, they’ll proceed along 7th Avenue to Adam where they’ll turn left and go to Main Steet where they’ll turn right to go past the Brunswick Residence. The parade will then turn up Fair St., then right on Gouin, and right again on Craig to go down to Main where it will turn right to get to René Thibault Park.
“Once Santa gets to the park,” Jerry explains, “he’ll be joined by the mayors of the five municipalities and together they’ll light up the Christmas tree. It’s going to be a festive family occasion. There will be a master of ceremonies and entertainment. There will also be prizes drawn for the parade participants. All this is possible because we’ve had a lot of support from merchants and citizens who have contributed to our fundraising. Presents for children will be handed out the following morning, on Sunday at 10:30.”
Logistics for any event can be challenging and there were a few for this one as well.
“The tree that the Chamber of Commerce put up this year is about 50 feet tall and comes from the farm of Alain Boisvert and Summer Mason,”
Jerry notes. “It took a bit of coordination to get it from the woods to the park. One of Courteau’s tow trucks was needed to haul it and a cherry picker from Location Richmond was used to decorate it.”
“The parade route posed a small complication,” he adds. “Fair Street is very short but, while its in Richmond, it is the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Transport, not of the municipality. We had to contact the Ministry for permission for that part of the parade route. The SQ was very helpful in terms of advice with respect to barricades and safety equipment like luminated batons for directing traffic.”
“We won’t actually know how many vehicles will be in the parade until the evening of the 4th,” Jerry says. “It’s a first for all of us but it could become an annual event.”
“If so,” he continues, “next year we’ll have more time to plan and we’ll work to minimize the parade’s carbon footprint. This year, in the context of the pandemic, we felt that this kind of event would be good for our spirits.”