Light It Up: Mercer County Intermediate Is Organizing A Reverse Christmas Parade
Image by Pujanak, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Mercer County Intermediate School is inviting businesses and individuals to participate in a community wide holiday reverse parade event.
“Our staff, along with staff and students from other Mercer County Schools, will be creating stationary displays for community families to drive through and enjoy. Think of it as a Southern Lights inspired reverse parade,” said Kelly Odell, principal of Mercer County Intermediate School. “We are inviting any community business or organization to participate by creating their own display to be set up on school grounds. This could be anything from decorating the bed of a truck, to creating a stationary parade float, to setting up a display on the ground. The sky’s the limit.”
The displays will be set up for one night only. Participants may begin setting up on Friday, Dec. 18, at 2:30 p.m. to be ready for community spectators on Saturday, Dec. 19, from 5:30-8:30 p.m.
“There are no fees for participating. All COVID health and safety guidelines will be followed, this means spectators may not get out of their vehicles and participants may not hand out items to spectators during the event,” said Odell. “Also, we will be working with our local law enforcement agencies to ensure safety of participants and spectators.”
Will Carlton, assistant principal at Mercer Intermediate, said he and Odell are co-parenting the event.
“This was born from the desire to provide our students, staff and parents with something neat that we could celebrate as we headed into Christmas break. It’s been a tough year,” said Carlton. “Once we learned that the annual Christmas parade was cancelled, we thought why not get the rest of the community involved. We’ve all been affected by the pandemic in one way or another. The hope is that for one night, maybe we can forget about the last 10 months and just enjoy the season.”
For more information, email Odell at kelly.odell@mercer.kyschools.us. or Will Carlton at will.carlton@mercer.kyschools.us.
