Under new direction and with a new name, the Norman parade is back on for the holidays.
The Dec. 9 parade’s hotline, which yesterday had a recorded message stating that the volunteer committee quit, now has a new message for callers.
“We are pleased to announce the parade scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 9 will move forward as planned with a new group of volunteers led by Norman resident and community leader Ed Copelin,” said the recording.
Thursday’s announcement comes one day after the 10 members of the volunteer parade committee resigned. One of the major issues was whether the parade would be referred to as the “Holiday Parade” or the “Christmas Parade”
Copelin, owner of Copelin’s Office Center and new chair of the parade committee, said the parade will move forward as the “Main Street Christmas Holiday Parade.”
“The parade is for the kids,” Copelin said. “It would be a shame if adult commotion would put a damper on something for the kids.”
Copelin said he has already received phone calls from people wanting to help with the parade. He said he volunteered to make sure that the community event would not be scrapped after all the work put into it already.
“We want to pick up on (the volunteer committee’s) work because they’ve done a lot of good work so far,” Copelin said. “We hope the community gets behind it, comes to the parade and participates in the parade.”
Glenn Dobry, a former volunteer committee member, said he and other former committee members still want to be involved in the parade.
“I think Mr. Copelin will take this and run with it and will be successful,” Dobry said. “I certainly hope to participate in the parade.”
Dobry said as a member of the Knights of Columbus, a group that puts out Christmas cards aiming to “keep the Christ in Christmas,” he personally never wanted to exclude Christmas from the parade.
“To attack members of the committee as non-Christians is bogus,” Dobry said. “It’s a commercial holiday, but we celebrate the birth of Christ. As a Christian, I think we celebrate Christ’s birth everyday. I don’t need a parade to celebrate that.”
Dobry said the committee formed in 2004, when the parade was called the “Holiday Parade,” but said the name received no complaints. He said the issue became larger last year, when larger businesses prevented employees from saying “Merry Christmas.”
“We just wanted a community event that was inclusive to the whole community,” Dobry said. “The purpose of not calling it the Christmas parade was not to remove religion, on the contrary. If you call it (the) Christmas (Parade), you reject other religious groups.”
Copelin said the parade is now accepting parade entries and seeking volunteers to help. Entry forms are still available by e-mailing parade@cox.net and volunteers can call 364-7011.
“It’s the combined efforts of a lot of folks in the community,” Copelin said.
Althea Peterson
366-3539
apeterson@normantranscript.com
Local news
Norman parade is back on
• Parade to be known as “Main Street Christmas Holiday Parade”
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