SHAMOKIN - Despite a week of severe weather, it stayed nice enough on Friday night for Camryn Hoover and her younger sister, Joelle, of Harrisburg, to enjoy their first parade with their grandparents, Scott and Kathy Bailey, of Shamokin.
"The kids enjoyed the parade very much," said Kathy Bailey, as the two granddaughters gathered up their candy. "Especially the marching bands. They were dancing."
Jeanne Shaffer, executive director of the Northumberland County Council for
the Arts and Humanities said that it was the biggest parade yet for the festival.
"It was a record crowd," said Shaffer. "I was very excited by the amount of support."
Severe thunderstorm warnings for Friday night led to the cancellation of the concert by the Mud Flaps and the luminary ceremony, but the fireworks display has been rescheduled for 9:30 tonight, and the luminaries will be announced in The News-Item. "I feel bad we had to cancel, but we just had to with the recent weather and high winds," said Shaffer. "We've been thankful for the weather the last five years, so it was bound to happen."
With the weather cooperating at parade time, the music from the marching bands of Shamokin and Shikellamy high schools echoed through the streets of Shamokin as the parade made its way down Independence Street to officially start the weekend's annual Anthracite Heritage Festival of the Arts.
Also echoing through the street were the chants from the Shamokin Youth Girls Baseball League players as they marched along, showing off their uniforms with the area's boys youth baseball teams, Scouts and Aikido Kai organization.
Some of the young people even made their own costumes. Melinda Tharp's Day Care won the award for "best use of the coal mining theme" with its mining outfits and red, white and blue float. Children in the Shamokin Rotary Club float helped that organization win the "most creative" award.
The costumes weren't just for the kids either. Residents Mountain View: A Nursing and Rehabilitation Center were covered from head to toe with red, white, and blue, and they were acclaimed as "most patriotic." The "Rescue Sump Pumpers" also wore old-fashioned clothes as they drove an old-time fire truck.
The "most entertaining" award went to the Bear Gap Vaulters, who showed off their gymnastic ability.
There were so many different vehicles, costumes, sounds and colors marching down the street on Friday, it was hard for anyone to pick their favorite part of the parade. Five-year-old Gabrielle Hill couldn't decide if it was Coal Township's blue fire truck or the Heritage High Wheelers riding their old-fashioned bicycles.
"It was a very nice parade," said her mother, Crystal Blass, with a laugh.