Strathmore, 100 years young

Times Reporter

 

Heritage Days is almost here and, as much as everyone looks forward to the rodeo and midway activities, many are excited for the parade. The parade begins at 9 a.m. July 30 but participants need to be at their marshalling area and ready for judging by 7:45 a.m. when the judging begins.

“We’re changing things up a little bit. We’ve got two marshalling areas, one for the floats and open for the mounted entries and we’ll merge them together,” said Marcy Field, the 2011 parade committee chair. 

The theme this year is ‘Strathmore 100 Years Young,’ and parade participants who incorporate the theme into their entry will have a chance to be judged on how well they did. There are a number of different categories, which can all be found on the Strathmore and District Chamber of Commerce website. 

“The theme is Strathmore, 100 years young and I think that they can focus on youth, they can focus on the history of the town. We want to see Strathmore go really strong for the next 100 years. We’ve made it this far, but you don’t get any place just looking in the rearview mirror, you need to look ahead,” said Field.

“We need to acknowledge our past, and learn from our past, but we need to focus on our future to look ahead, and it’s a great town to be doing that in.”

The parade committee is still looking for volunteers, Field said, particularly teenagers who may be interested in being in the parade as banner carriers.

“We’ve had banners made that will inform the people watching the parade where the first place winners were in each of the categories. We’re looking for young people that could walk the parade route and do that,” said Field. 

There will be T-shirts and a thank you gift given to the banner carriers.  Last year there were over 100 entries in the parade and Field would like to see at least that many again this year. Thanks to generous donations from Chamber members, Field said there will also be breakfast sandwiches served to parade participants this year. 

To enter into the parade, or to find out more about volunteering go to www.strathmoredistrictchamber.com or call 403-901-3175.