Most of you are aware that CMATVA was planning to participate in the Parade on Saturday the 15th during the weekend Flaming Foliage Festival. As it turns out there were only 6 of us that chose to be part of it. Some of us wore our Renovo ATV Cruise for a Cure Tee Shirts from June and others their CMATVA Safety Green Staff Tee Shirts. Those attending members were Rich Wykoff, Carl Johnson, Bob Thompson, Tom Johnson, Paul Eggler and me. Thanks guys, very nice job.
This was our first try at being part of this parade so we were all naturally a little nervous since there are typically in the area of 30,00 people attending this annual event. However, everything came together better than I had even hoped for. We all actually had fun along with some good laughs. Rich was our first rider and pulled a wagon with a display on it that was created by the BucktailMedicalCenter’s Relay for Life Team. They had asked for our help and we were glad to give that assistance. Next came Paul Eggler, pulling CMATVA’s 8 car train (each car is stenciled with our club’s ID and our website address) and a large American Flag on a pole that is attached to the lead car. We had some young people riding in the cars which turned out to be a real asset. After the train came Carl and I, riding 2 wide, and following us were Tom and Bob, also riding 2 wide. Behind them was the convertible car carrying the Jersey Shore Beauty Queen Contestant, the only one we actually got to see.
As Paul snaked from side to side along the approx. 2 mile parade route, his riders played a reverse on the candy hand out game. Most groups throw candy out to the spectators but our riders played the spectators and had them throwing the candy. The kids were quite athletic with their catches with their hands and their baseball caps. People that made a bad throw were actually picking their candy back up and running out and dropping it into hands and caps. Our audience enjoyed the whole process. We actually occasionally received an applause from groups along the route and received many nice comments and thumbs up. We also all got to wave and say hi to many friends we spotted along the way.
The parade started pretty much on time at 1:45 PM and went along quite smoothly. We finished at the same spot we had been assigned prior to the start and from there we proceeded back to the parking area we came from at the HeritagePark. This is the same area we parked and left from for the Renovo ATV Cruise for a Cure back in June. We had no problems coming or leaving the area and left this parade with the feeling that it was time well spent and was a positive experience. I was definitely happy I was part of it.
Wayne Yahn
President
CMATVA Inc.