TFalls Chamber plans holiday event
<p><strong>Joanne Burk explains how the Thompson Falls Christmas on Main Street’s parade will be done this year.</strong></p>
THOMPSON FALLS – During their regular meeting last week, the Thompson Falls Chamber of Commerce discussed their upcoming activities for their Christmas on Main Street event.
Joanne Burk, representative for the Christmas Parade, gave an update on her contribution to the festivities. She recalled they had started reaching out to people about being in the parade early this year. This gave groups more time to prepare, such as the high school band having time to pick out and practice music.
“Any entry from years past who said they didn’t get enough warning, we tried to target those people and call them right away,” Burk said.
The parade group hopes to reach out to all businesses in the community; they feel it can be used as a good source of free advertising as well as being a fun way to get out into the community. The goal, though, is to still hit this year’s Christmas on Main Street theme and Burk noted there were some strategies for designing a float to advertise while still keeping to the theme.
She also recalled they had hear complaints of the parade going too fast and people walking the parade were having trouble keeping up with the different groups. She suggested they could switch things up and have the parade stop every block to allow everyone to catch up.
A counter suggestion was brought up of just slowing the procession down entirely; going off this idea, it was noted they could ask the grand marshal and flag carriers to walk slower, then advise everyone in the parade to be sure not to leave gaps.
“It’s so hard,” said Burk of getting everything just right. “I get people who compliment that it always starts on time, it’s always well spaced; but then, you always have people who are upset about something.”
Another part of the event will be the 18th annual gingerbread-decorating contest at the Old Jail Museum. Community members will be able to submit gingerbread creations for judging in one of four categories: there will be a winner selected in age groups of children eight and under, nine to 18, 19 and up as well as family or group entries. There will also be a special prize for the person who gets the most votes.
Entries for the contest can be submitted on Saturday, December 7 from 11 am until noon.
There was also lots of discussion on the event’s scavenger hunt. It was noted the museum will be the drop off point for the hunt’s lists this year; they will have special hours on Friday, December 6, for people to drop them off if they cannot get there on Saturday.
The lists for the hunt will be handed out during the senior citizen’s bazaar on November 28. This will also be the kick off date for the hunt and people can begin their searches.
It was noted, however, people dropping off scavenger hunt lists early will not be able to vote for the gingerbread contest while they are there. According to Robin Hagedorn, the contest will not be set up until Saturday and anyone wishing to vote on, or view, the creations will need to come back then.
Hagedorn also discussed the state of the holiday bazaar during the meeting. She noted it almost did not happen this year and Lynn Bierwagon was not planning to continue running the event. They are looking for people who would be interested in running the event to contact Bierwagon.
“So if you have any ideas on anyone who’s good at running those kinds of things, they can get ahold of Lynn and I’m sure she’s got all the paperwork and everything for who exhibits every year,” Hagedorn said.