This being our Sesquicentennial, we built a float for the annual Shrimp Festival Parade. We thought sure we would win first prize, but didn’t. But we all had a great time planning, building, decorating, and riding. Well, only two of us got to ride and wave at the crowd.
The idea of building a float and the impetus to begin came from Lorraine Corbett. Several folks met after church one day in April and bantered back and forth with design concepts. The primary builder was John Skowronski and his faithful helper Evelyn. Also handy with saw and hammer was Ed Grissom. Painters and artists were Andrea Lassere, Luciann Thompson, Virginia Powell, Lorraine Corbett, and Joanne Roach. The skirt of blue “flowers” was made of chicken wire and plastic tablecloths and the white “flowers” were cut and tied from white plastic tablecloths. The people who worked for hours making “flowers” were Jayne Jeney, Evelyn Skowronski, Susan Matheson, Ellen Flenniken, Dalia Talbird, and the Warrens - Trey, Inga, Livi, and Emma Jane. Bill Hayes glued the white “flowers” to both sides of the skirt to spell out “FISHERS OF MEN.”
The EYC created a beautiful banner and carried it before the float for the full length of the parade. The small children, with Andrea Lasserre’s help, made shrimp for the nets and walked with the float wearing fish costumes they had made. Brian Moody designed and made the beautiful, real-looking stained glass windows on the front of the church. Father George and Kimberly looked like Mardi Gras King and Queen as they rode on the float, constantly waving to the multitudes.
Special mention goes to the Kelleys (Steve, Mike, Thomas and their crews) for letting us use their business place for the construction, for the use of the trailer, and for pulling the float behind their truck.
If your name should be included and isn’t, please email the web-steward and tell him your part in this adventure. If you have good pictures of the construction phase, please send them as email attachments. If they are large files (over one megabyte) send only one per email.
