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Photo courtesy of Stan Mangham.
ZEBULON - The 2nd Annual Pike County Youth Christmas Parade was held on December 13th at 3:00 p.m. Festivities began at 2:00 pm on the square with live entertainment, vendors, inflatables, and Santa Claus was available to see kids after the parade as well.
A crew of volunteers put together a parade with more than 50 entries and many vendors who participated as well. Families lined the road from the tail end of the route at the schools all the way around the square and back to the official starting point at Old Zebulon Road. During the parade, seating was set up on the Square and the parade entries were announced as they passed through. There was also a contest to see who could make the best wreath. These entries were on windows around the Courthouse.
The 42 foot tall Christmas tree that adorns the Courthouse Square was donated by Harriet Prior, a 100 year old Pike County resident, who bought this Christmas tree when it was small. She planted this tree and another like it in her yard after she used it for her Christmas festivities. She used to put lights on them when they were small, but they are not small anymore! Mrs. Prior told County Manager John Hanson that the trees have taken over her yard and she can't see to go left or right when she leaves her yard. She spoke to County Manager Hanson about donating the trees for the enjoyment of county residents, and the smallest of the two trees was brought to the Courthouse to be adorned with lights. The other tree will be used next Christmas.
This years' parade was hosted by The Pike County Arts Council Jr. Players. Floats were judged for various categories too. All of the youth in the community was urged to be involved in the parade including indivduals or groups such as sports teams, youth groups, civic groups, school clubs, school teams, 4-H, FFA, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and more. No fee was required to participate, just Christmas spirit! And participate, they did!
Last year, Pike County was honored to host Hunter Strickland of the San Francisco Giants as the Grand Marshal of the parade. The parade was organized and executed last year with less than 10 volunteers in a three week time period. Click here to see pictures from last year's parade. If you are interested in volunteering for next year's parade, please contact Ginny at the commissioner’s office at (770) 567-3406.
This year's theme was racing as "Mad" Maddie Crane was the Grand Marshal! Maddie is a teenage superstar in the racing community, so racing fans and enthusiasts entered their cars in the parade as everyone celebrated Christmas and recognized another great accomplishment of a Pike County youth that is on the rise in the sport of racing! Madeline “Mad Maddie” Crane is a Meansville native who started racing Bandoleros in the Thursday Night Series at Atlanta Motor Speedway when she was just 10 years old. After a slow start that first season, she finished strong with two consecutive wins. She quickly moved to Legend cars, and by the time she was 14 she already had 59 top-five finishes in just 82 starts as well as finishing the year as the Pro Division Winter Flurry Champion. Maddie was recently racing in a Super Late Model class that gave her the opportunity to race closer to home against some of the top names in dirt racing and gain valuable race experience. The 17 year old Pike County High student is currently making the transition back to asphalt racing. She took 5th place in her first race in August at Shenandoah.
Enjoy the many photos from the parade here. More photos are available on my Facebook page. If there is a picture here that you would like to have and you do not have Facebook, send me an email at editor@pikecountytimes.com and I will get it to you. If you use Facebook, feel free to download any of those pictures if you see something that you like. Please send a donation to Pike County Times, PO Box 843, Zebulon GA 30295 to help pay for gas to go to events as well as monthly website expenses for Pike County's only FREE newspaper.
