Last night I had the honour of being the Honorary Parade Marshall for the Barrhaven Santa Claus Parade.
Before I went to the World Championships I was told by a couple local politicians that I would be the Marshall IF I won. When I asked what would happen if I didn’t win they jokingly said….”well then you’ll be either pulling a float or walking behind the horses with a shovel and pail”. I didn’t like either of those options so I knew I had to win ;).
The Barrhaven Community has been such a huge source of support for me. I was so excited when I found out that I would be sitting on a Soltice convertible loaned by Jack May GMC. I love this car! Then I was surprised to have magnet signage made and donated by Mark and Jill Emery of Paper Sign Man
I’ve never been in a parade before and there is such a different perspective. I really didn’t know that Barrhaven had so many people let alone so many young kids. People were lined up all along the route cheering like crazy.
Since we drove very slowly it was fun to talk to the kids along the way. I had so many people congratulating me and yelling ‘Hey, I do taekwon-do too’ which is incredible. I’m so thankful that taekwon-do is getting more exposure and that more young kids are starting. It was fun to see my teachers and friends along the route as well. One teacher jokingly threatened to throw a snowball at me but he knew better… 🙂
Seeing the little kids faces was absolutely priceless. They were so excited to see Santa at the end of the parade. There was so much sparkle and innocence in their eyes. I had as much fun watching them as they did watching the parade!!!
There was over 30,000 people out to watch the 80 floats in the parade. Since it was at night every float was lit up with thousands of lights and the Christmas music was everywhere.
It was special to have my dad and mom in the car with me since we really have gone through everything together to get to this point. I wished there had been room for my brother too. Thanks Greg for taking the pictures of the floats for me.
My only disappointment of the night was I didn’t get to spent any time on the West Barrhaven Community Association Float that was at the back of the parade. My whole family has spent the last few weekends helping them build it but I never got to see it all lit up at night. I just know how many lights we attached to the gingerbread house lol. Working on the float with everyone was such a fun experience.
Right after the parade I stopped by the Manor (since it was on the route) to see my Grandpa since he couldn’t get out to the parade and I knew he would want to see the cool car. He has always loved and always had a convertible himself (white ones too). Many of the other people in the residence came out to see it and wanted to hear all about the parade. I’m lucky that he lives so close to still be a part of everything in some way or another.
