Editor's note: This article has been updated from the original to remove incorrect information about the pancake breakfast. The Innisfail Royal Canadian Legion will not be hosting a pancake breakfast prior to this year's parade.
INNISFAIL – The town’s time-honoured annual parade is back.
The Innisfail Annual Rotary Rodeo Parade, which was a casualty of the pandemic in 2020, will be back through downtown on Sept. 4. That is the same weekend as the Daines Ranch Rodeo, which is belatedly celebrating its 60th anniversary after being cancelled last year. The town is a sponsor of the rodeo, and recently provided $2,500 to support the event.
The parade is also on the same day as the first Lemonade Day, a free community-wide educational program to inspire today’s young entrepreneurs.
“It’s obviously a huge community event. It will have more people out and about than normal. We will have lemonade stands scattered through the parade route at designated locations,” said local realtor Darcy Blair, the lead organizer of the event who emphasized Lemonade Day is open to all youths. “It will be great for the people viewing the parade. They will have the opportunity to buy some lemonade.
“That’s a huge advantage there but the lemonade stands are not limited to the parade route,” he added. “They will be at a bunch of different businesses, including The Coffee Cottage, and they are even encouraged to have them in front of their own house.”
The Innisfail Annual Rotary Rodeo Parade is a partnership between the Rotary Club of Innisfail and the Town of Innisfail. With positive cases from the COVID-19 pandemic still high last spring the typical June date was called off. But with numbers then declining rapidly, it became possible to consider both the rodeo and parade.
Tammy Thompson, the new president of the local Rotary club, said the decision to go ahead with the parade was made in late July once the service club knew rodeo officials made the decision to put on their event.
She said the service club’s main duties for the parade, which will start at 10:30 a.m., are the marshalling - getting the floats organized and positioned, and putting the horses, groups and bands into sections, and then deciding who will go first and follow. Thompson said on Aug. 12 a parade marshal will be selected.
“We have lots of great people in our community we can consider,” she said, adding many volunteers are stepping up to help. “We have some people in our community and within our Rotary club who are signed up to volunteer. We do still need a few more, so we are still looking for more volunteers if anybody is interested.”
Thompson was not sure how many floats will participate in this year’s parade but is assuring the community that Rotary will “take all of them.
“Whoever wants to take part in the parade is more than welcome to join,” she said. “We are just excited to be part of the community and to gather as a community this year, and we are excited to have this back in place. We want the community to gather safely and have fun.
"It’s very exciting for the community to get back to these things, and we are glad there’s lots of activities going on in the community that weekend," added Thompson.
Meghan Jenkins, the town’s director of community services, said the municipality’s parade role is managing float registrations, invitations to dignitaries, as well as advertising and promotion. Jenkins is optimistic the event will be enthusiastically welcomed and run without any issues.
“We’re hoping for a nice day. There is a little bit short notice between when the rodeo was made official and when we got in touch with Rotary and got everything organized. We are excited to have the event,” said Jenkins, noting it wasn’t until Aug. 5 the town had confirmation from Rotary the parade was a go for Sept. 4.
Jenkins added the Co-op will be hosting a barbecue after the parade at around noon.
As for the time-honoured tradition of candies being tossed out to excited children during the parade, Jenkins said kids will have that but with conditions. “It is not allowed to be thrown but can be passed out,” she said, chuckling.
The town is now accepting applications for anyone wishing to participate in the parade. The online application form, as well as additional information, can be accessed at www.innisfail.ca/parade
Any citizen wanting to volunteer for the parade can email [email protected]
For more information about Lemonade Day go to lemonadeday.org/Innisfail. For businesses wanting to sponsor or donate he or she can visit Blair’s RE/MAX office at 5008 – 50th Street or at The Coffee Cottage at 5112 – 49th Ave.
