Volunteers will be an important component of next week’s Italian-American Parade.
A large group of volunteers came together Monday afternoon in an organizational preparation meeting at Laurel Manor Recreation Center.
The Italian-American Parade will be at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 8 in Spanish Springs Town Square.
The volunteers will handle parking, staging, check-in and clean up, among other duties. Parade volunteers will be armed with two-way radios to facilitate communication. Parade officials will have flags to help steer parade participants.
Parade set up will begin at 7:30 a.m. on the day of the event.
The parade will feature popular Villagers entertainer Mary Jo Vitale who will sing and ride around the parade route in a golf cart.
Before the parade, Sparky’s Strummers will entertain.
The Villages Twirlers will be among the many acts featured in the parade which should last an hour.
This is the second resident-organized parade. This past year, the Villages Entertainment Department opted to phase out parades.
Residents were enraged and appealed to the Amenity Authority Committee which worked out a deal by which the residents could stage their own parades.
In a matter of a few weeks, members of the Irish, Italian and German clubs in The Villages were able to pull together a resident-run Irish-American parade in March in Spanish Springs.
The Recreation Department is working with the Resident Parade Committee.
Lisa Parkyn and Dillon Burns of the Recreation Department were at the parade coordination meeting and won a round of applause for their hard work in the planning process.
