SANTA DRAWS A BIG TURNOUT!
The 17th Annual Surrey Santa Claus Parade Breaks Record For Number of Entries
After organizing parades for more than 17 years in Cloverdale with the Santa and Rodeo parades, there is nothing more rewarding than seeing all of the smiling faces on the children who come to watch and celebrate the community. The Surrey Santa Claus Parade in Cloverdale has evolved over the years from when it had a large contingent of Big Rigs to a full-blown community parade with llamas, dogs, boats, sporting teams, theatrical/dance groups, remote controlled vehicles, tow trucks, vintage and custom vehicles, service clubs, car clubs to groups promoting the Special Olympics and Accessibility.
Our humble parade is primarily funded by the Cloverdale Business Improvement Association, which gets its resources from property owners in the Cloverdale Town Centre through a tax levy. Other businesses/organizations also help out like CUPE 402, HomeLife Benchmark Corp. Realty, Trail Appliances, Valley Auto Repair, Envision Financial, the Cloverdale Chamber serving East Surrey, Express Employment Professionals – Cloverdale, and Michauds Salon & Spa. We also get help from the BC Vintage Truck Museum who annually decorate the Santa float and provide numerous vintage trucks for politicians and other groups. (Plus, they work on registering the parade entrants. The parade is also sponsored by Cloverdale Magazine, who provides designs for Certificates of Participation to posters and editorials. (They also had a hand in traffic management in the staging area.)
Special big thanks must go to all of the parade entrants who every year come with some fantastic floats and entries. Their hearts are in the right place as we all try to collect additional non-perishable food items and toys for the Cloverdale Community Kitchen, the Surrey Food Bank and the Cloverdale Christmas Hamper program. Another tip of the hat must go to Cloverdale Community Kitchen, Meadows Church, Tangerine Developments/Fifth Ave Marketing, and Natalie Gauvreau for organizing an entertainment/donation area by Wyndham Estate and in Hawthorne Square.
I also owe a debt of gratitude to my assistant Tamara Johnston who helped pull off one of our largest parades ever in Cloverdale, which lasted over 2 hours and 20 minutes. We had a record number of entries and a few glitches that made the parade a little slower than it should have been, but we are constantly learning and improving year after year. We also would like to thank all of the residents for putting up with the traffic congestion and huge crowds that came to the parade.
More thanks needs to go to Surrey Association for Community Living for their behind-the-scenes work in delivering Parade posters and resident letters discussing temporary no parking along the parade route. Our sincerest appreciation also goes to City Councillor Mike Bose for his generous donation.
I am sure I have forgotten others who helped make this event happen and I ask for forgiveness. But last but not least I must thank my daughter Claire for pitching in on a number of important tasks that got overlooked and making her dad super proud.
Thank you to everyone who had a hand in this amazing parade!
