PAGE: LOCAL NEWS
Sunday fundraiser key to Halloween parade
By Mike Jordan (October 22, 2009)
The event that funds the annual Lakefield Halloween Parade this year precedes the Oct. 31 spooky spectacular by less than a week.
The popular Lakefield Kiwanis French Toast Breakfast fundraiser is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 25, from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Lakefield American Legion Hall. Proceeds from the breakfast cover the treats and other expenses associated with the annual Kiwanis-sponsored Halloween parade the following Saturday.
“Without the support of the community at our annual French toast breakfast, the Halloween parade that always follows it would not be the big success that it is every year,” said Lakefield Kiwanis Club President Tracy Wheeler. “The French toast breakfast is also a great time for food and fellowship. I would invite everyone to come to the breakfast and enjoy some good French toast, sausages and a beverage. The Kiwanis have supported the youth of our community for over 50 years and we invite everyone to come support us in our fundraising effort.”
This year’s Halloween parade participants will take to the streets of the city at 6:30 p.m. Halloween night, filling them with little ghosts, goblins, witches and scary characters of all kinds as well as Lakefield police cars, fire engines and emergency vehicles all flashing their lights and sounding their sirens to add to the excitement for all the little ones that turn out for the fun. The new Prairie Ecology Bus will join in the parade as well.
This year’s Halloween parade will take place as it always does on Oct. 31, but this year’s holiday falls on a Saturday, so an even greater turnout of costumed kids is expected.
“With the Kiwanis Halloween Parade falling on a Saturday this year, parents will have more time and be less hurried in getting their kids ready for the big parade,” said Kiwanis member Pat Costello, coordinator of the Kiwanis Halloween Parade. “Normally, when Halloween falls on a weekday, the kids’ parents have little time to get home from work, get their kids dressed in costumes and down to the middle school. This year, it should be less of a hassle for them getting their kids to the middle school and ready for the parade in plenty of time.”
The Jackson County Central Middle School will again be the meeting place prior to the event where the kids will form up for the parade down Main Street and back to the middle school.
“We will open the doors of the JCC Middle School at 6 p.m. Halloween evening this year,” Costello said. “Kids and their parents can meet there then and, at 6:30 p.m., the parade will begin. The kids, along with the emergency vehicles, fire trucks and police cars, will parade down Main Street in Lakefield to the Lakefield City Hall. There, they will turn around and parade back to the middle school where the costumed kids will cross the stage so everyone can see their Halloween garb and then each kid will be given a traditional Kiwanis Halloween treat.”
In recent years, the number of kids joining in the Halloween parade has been around 150, but in the early years of the parade, Kiwanians saw that number hover around several hundred at times.
The popular Lakefield Kiwanis French Toast Breakfast fundraiser is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 25, from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Lakefield American Legion Hall. Proceeds from the breakfast cover the treats and other expenses associated with the annual Kiwanis-sponsored Halloween parade the following Saturday.
“Without the support of the community at our annual French toast breakfast, the Halloween parade that always follows it would not be the big success that it is every year,” said Lakefield Kiwanis Club President Tracy Wheeler. “The French toast breakfast is also a great time for food and fellowship. I would invite everyone to come to the breakfast and enjoy some good French toast, sausages and a beverage. The Kiwanis have supported the youth of our community for over 50 years and we invite everyone to come support us in our fundraising effort.”
This year’s Halloween parade participants will take to the streets of the city at 6:30 p.m. Halloween night, filling them with little ghosts, goblins, witches and scary characters of all kinds as well as Lakefield police cars, fire engines and emergency vehicles all flashing their lights and sounding their sirens to add to the excitement for all the little ones that turn out for the fun. The new Prairie Ecology Bus will join in the parade as well.
This year’s Halloween parade will take place as it always does on Oct. 31, but this year’s holiday falls on a Saturday, so an even greater turnout of costumed kids is expected.
“With the Kiwanis Halloween Parade falling on a Saturday this year, parents will have more time and be less hurried in getting their kids ready for the big parade,” said Kiwanis member Pat Costello, coordinator of the Kiwanis Halloween Parade. “Normally, when Halloween falls on a weekday, the kids’ parents have little time to get home from work, get their kids dressed in costumes and down to the middle school. This year, it should be less of a hassle for them getting their kids to the middle school and ready for the parade in plenty of time.”
The Jackson County Central Middle School will again be the meeting place prior to the event where the kids will form up for the parade down Main Street and back to the middle school.
“We will open the doors of the JCC Middle School at 6 p.m. Halloween evening this year,” Costello said. “Kids and their parents can meet there then and, at 6:30 p.m., the parade will begin. The kids, along with the emergency vehicles, fire trucks and police cars, will parade down Main Street in Lakefield to the Lakefield City Hall. There, they will turn around and parade back to the middle school where the costumed kids will cross the stage so everyone can see their Halloween garb and then each kid will be given a traditional Kiwanis Halloween treat.”
In recent years, the number of kids joining in the Halloween parade has been around 150, but in the early years of the parade, Kiwanians saw that number hover around several hundred at times.