Annual Christmas parade returns to Marion

The city of Marion held its annual Christmas City USA parade on Saturday.

“I think for us to see everybody else participating is a really fun thing,” Marion Health’s Chief Nursing Officer Cindy Futrell said. “Just going around and looking, everybody’s happy on this day, everybody comes in a good mood. And there’s nothing better than walking down the road and seeing all the kids and everybody’s just in a good mood.”

Local high schools participated in the event.

“I just really, really wanted to show off what the kids have been doing,” Marion High School Giannettes dance team Coach Diva Hunt said. “We work hard every day at practice, and I wanted them to get a chance to just really have fun and just be out here with their family, friends, siblings. Everybody’s welcome, and we’re just here to have fun and spread joy for the Christmas season.”

Indiana Wesleyan University’s Marching Wildcats were also present.

“We’re just going to bring so much joy as we enter,” Marching Wildcat Michael Biven said. “We actually are going to proceed Santa Claus. So, we’re going to go in first, and then Santa is going to come behind us, and we’re going to play “Santa (Claus) is Comin’ to Town”, and it’s just going to be such a great time.”

Services tried to draw awareness through the parade. StatFlight 3 was one of the groups that participated.

“We’re kind of tucked away in the airport, so people don’t really know that we’re here,” flight nurse Hayden Vroegop said. “We’ve been here for almost five years, and so we provide a vital service to the area, so this is kind of how we just make ourselves as seen a little bit more and just help the community maybe feel a little bit more comfortable that they have a cool resource like an air ambulance nearby.”

People could enter their floats for judging to win awards.

“Last year, we won the best float, and that was a fun time,” Futrell said. “It’s the first time we won an award that I’m aware of. So, it was really neat. They worked really hard on making those floats.”

Multiple groups across Marion came together for the parade.

“There’s various floats of different organizations in the community,” Biven said. “You have various churches, various clubs, sport teams from the school and sometimes there’s even animals that are paraded through. I remember last year, there were some horses. It’s a representation of the community.”