After months of planning, Tourism Moose Jaw’s executive director and organizer of the Hometown Parade Candis Kirkpatrick was feeling a bit overwhelmed while the last few floats filtered back into the Civic Centre parking lot as the parade came to a close.
“I feel like I’m on a high,” she said.
With 93 floats in this year’s parade, Kirkpatrick’s inaugral year as organizer provided for a few bumps along the way. But she said those involved were understanding and things ran rather smoothly.
“I think that they saw we were really trying hard. They knew it was our first year so we had little bloops,” she said. “It’s a huge amount of organization and we learned a lot of things for next year.”
But if there were any bloops, the hundreds of people that lined the southern portion of Main Street didn’t seem to notice.
“It was a good long parade and a good way for stores and businesses to advertise themselves. It was a wonderful evening and we’re glad we came,” said Doug Russell, who, along with his wife Gladie, was attending this first parade in Moose Jaw since they grew up here as children.
“I’ve been to the one in Prince Albert,” said Colby Vermette, who was attending her first Hometown Parade. “I liked it. It’s longer, and Moose Jaw’s downtown is a lot nicer.”
Vermette’s friend Marlene Ward echoed that reaction.
“I actually liked it better this year because usually there’s longer gaps, and this year there wasn’t,” she said. “This was great actually.”
That was something that Kirkpatrick was happy to hear.
For more on this story, read an upcoming edition of the Times-Herald.
