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Show Our Readers Write Try being Chairman Dear Editor: I have read with interest the letters in your paper concerning the Bountiful Handcart Days Parade and political candidates. As chairman chair-man of the Centerville July Fourth Parade for the past five years, I would like to share some of my own views. Anyone who criticizes a parade in any community for any reason needs to become a parade chairman and organize a parade him (or her) self! He would need to begin right now, not waiting until a month or two before the parade, and spend thousands of hours contacting businesses, busi-nesses, schools, military, church and community leaders. He would need to beat the bushes for volunteer vol-unteer help, only to find that most people are apathetic or too busy. He would leam firsthand how it feels when bands and floats who have promised to be there don't ever show up. He would then become the object of criticism from others who have not experienced the frustrations involved in such an undertaking. He could also enjoy the satisfaction satisfac-tion that, against many odds, he was still successful in providing several thousand people with a well-planned, well-planned, well -organized community effort. If a well-planned, well-organized parade is the goal of your community, communi-ty, then rules and guidelines must be established and followed. Such rules will also upset a few, but create a more enjoyable parade for the majority of viewers. I wonder how many would attempt to buck the Days of 47 Parade committee with all their rules and regulations. Last year in the Clipper, a very derogatory editorial appeared condemning con-demning community parades throughout Davis County because they lacked spirit, patriotism, floats, clowns and all the trimmings that made parades so much fun years ago. (The writer of that editorial had obviously not attended the parade in Centerville.) Yet in order to have all those things, rules eliminating businesses and political candidates from cheap andor lazy advertising must be respected. I appreciate the political candidates can-didates who politely respected our position and stayed out of the Centerville Fourth of July Parade this year. Another candidate was not so polite, and insisted on walking walk-ing at the end of our parade against the direction of our police officers. He lost the votes of many citizens of Centerville that day. Some people peo-ple are willing to follow rules. Others insist on changing the rules, breaking the rules or weaseling their way through the rules. Mrs. Bmnsdale's efforts in recycling are commendable. She is to be congratulated. Did the Brunsdales use her many hours of community service as justification to break the parade rules and campaign? cam-paign? Or were they simply honoring honor-ing her for her service? We each have our own opinion about that. But I urge everyone to be very careful about the criticism they direct to the parade committee and chairman. I challenge everyone who has criticizedincluding the Clipper reporter that wrote the stinging editorial last year to call the parade chairman nearest you and volunteer your services for the 1991 parades in your communities. Once you see how much work that is, you'll be more aware of what effort is being expended in your behalf. I'd like to thank all the people who made the Centerville Parade a success this year. Many businesses donated money to sponsor floats and bands. There were a total of ten very beautiful floats in our parade with prizes and prize money awarded to the following: Carr Printing best business float; Woods Cross Stake-best Stake-best out-of-town float; Talbot family second place out-of-town float; Centerville Youth Council-most Council-most attractive float; Centerv ille Stake most original float; and the Centerville North Stake and Centerville South Stake tied for best portrayal of parade theme. What a shame that so many people who spent countless hours building and designing these floats received no recognition from the local newspaper. Instead of dragging parades and parade chairmen down to the political politi-cal arena of mud-slinging, let's appreciate ap-preciate them for what they do, along with all the hundreds of volunteers vol-unteers who make our parades exciting ex-citing and patriotic family events. Darlene Randall Chairman Emeritus, Centerville Fourth of July Parade |