Published: December 05, 2006 10:37 pm            

Dalton Parade Saturday

It’s on Saturday, it’s in the morning and it’s downtown, but the Dalton Christmas Parade is back this year with the theme of “Christmas on Main Street.”

The parade had in recent years been on Thursday night and primarily on Thornton Avenue. It was sponsored by the Dalton Noon Lions Club for 20 years.

This year’s parade is sponsored by the Downtown Dalton Development Authority and will begin at 10 a.m. on Saturday at the corner of Thornton and Waugh Streets in downtown Dalton. The parade will travel west to Pentz Street, south on Pentz Street and east on Morris Street. It will continue north on Hamilton Street to the Waugh Street overpass, then west on Waugh Street.

Parade entrants include Nickelodeon characters Dora the Explorer and Sponge Bob Square Pants, fire trucks, clowns, church groups and cloggers, according to Sarah Harrison, executive director of the development authority.

Others entrants include Boy and Girl Scouts, martial arts groups, the Dalton High School marching band and, of course, Santa Claus, Harrison said.

“I think we’re going to have a high quality parade,” Harrison said. “It may not be as long as it has been, but we think that it will be a good representation of the community with a lot of entertaining floats and groups.”

Awards this year include judge’s favorite, best use of theme, most enthusiastic, best use of music (other than bands), most creative, best visual/special effects and band awards.

The parade marshals this year will be Dalton Mayor Ray Elrod and members of the City Council. Radio personality and Southern humorist Ludlow Porch will be a special guest of the city.

Deadline for parade entry is Friday at 5 p.m. Vendors for things like balloons or soft drinks are also still being accepted by application at the development authority’s offices on the second floor of City Hall.

The development authority will be selling parade T-shirts at $15 at the corner of Crawford and Hamilton streets on Saturday. Volunteers are still needed and will receive a T-shirt. Volunteers can call the development authority at (706) 278-3332.

Entries will begin lining up at the corner of Waugh Street and School streets at 8 a.m. on Saturday. Floats are asked to line up at 8 and everyone else by 8:30 or no later than 9.

People who want to view the parade are encouraged to park west of 10th Street and in the Pentz Street parking deck. The best places to view the parade will be on Hamilton, Pentz, Waugh and Morris streets, Harrison said.

In conjunction with the parade, a model train show will be in Peacock Alley (311 N. Hamilton St.) from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Two model train clubs, the Chattanooga Area Model Club and the Georgia Garden Railway Society Club, are sponsoring the event. The show is free to the public.

Harrison said the development authority would like community feedback on the parade so organizers can make adjustments for next year. She said it’s not “set in stone” that the parade will always be in the morning.

“We’ll try it once and see if that’s what the community wants to see,” she said. “A lot of people are looking forward to daytime and a lot of people want it back at night. We feel this is a community parade and want to do those things that appeal to the community.”

        

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