MOOSOMIN — With fingers crossed for nice temperatures, the Moosomin Kinettes will be holding their annual Santa Claus Parade on Dec. 19. T
he only issue this year is they need float entires to participate. Usually, the parade sees around 20 floats entered each year, but as of last week, Alyssa Jeannot of the Moosomin Kinettes noted there were no confirmed float entries yet for the parade.
“Usually it’s pretty busy on the street with people watching, and we need to get it busy in the parade with floats,” she said, noting how there’s typically a large number of people lined up to watch the parade, but this year poses a big need for participants.
“We take entries up until basically the day of,” Jeannot said, adding that those interested in entering a float can email [email protected]. “It’s nice to know how many we’re going to have ahead of time, but we’ll take anybody and everybody that wants to be a part of it. I’m hoping we can kind of get people kind of excited about it again.”
Kicking off at 7 pm (with marshalling starting a half-hour earlier at Bradley Park), the parade will head west on Wright Road, south on Main Street, east on Broadway Avenue, and then back west on Wright Road to make a loop through the hospital parking lot.
“Covid was the first year, I believe, that we did it because we were trying to bring a little extra joy at Christmas time,” Jeannot explained. “And then it kind of caught on, so we just kept doing it!”
While many will be lining up to catch a glimpse of Santa Claus passing by, it’s also a great opportunity to bring in food bank donations.
“Every year, we do food bank pickup along the way, so the Kinettes and Kinsmen will be picking up bags of non-perishable food items,” Jeannot explained. “We just ask that people have them in a bag and have them on the edge of the road there for us, and we can pick them up on our way by.”
Seasonal temperatures play a large part in what kind of crowd turns out to watch the parade, and the Kinettes are hoping the mercury doesn’t drop too low in the thermometer for the special evening.
“It really does kind of put a damper on things when things are cold; hopefully it’s nice,” Jeannot said. “Last year was pretty nice, and then I think the year before it was freezing, so it’ll kind of depend on the weather.”
