CONNEAUT — The holiday season in Conneaut arrived Friday night amid music, lights — and some seasonal weather.
The city’s annual Christmas parade, sponsored by the Conneaut Optimists Club, featured bands, floats, fire trucks and clear but cold weather made chillier by gusting winds. Blankets, mittens and scarves were in abundance among the big crowd that watched the spectacle wind its way through the downtown district.
Something was missing — a layer of snow — and a few in the audience noticed the absence.
“I’d like a little snow on the ground,” said Woody Sorrentino of Ashtabula.
Sorrentino enjoyed last week’s holiday parade in Ashtabula, and decided to give Conneaut’s version a go. Asked to pick his favorite, Sorrentino proved a diplomat.
“I like them both,” he said.
The theme of this year’s parade was Candy Land, and the sweets tossed from passing units helped the event live up to its name. Candy Drew of Conneaut — a perfect name for the occasion — was with four little children, who clutched grocery bags they hoped to fill with goodies.
“They got candy at the (Conneaut High School) Homecoming parade, and they want some more,” she said, laughing.
Grand marshal was Tom Udell, Conneaut’s 2008 Citizen of the Year and newly elected City Council president, who will take office in January.
Watching the parade from a different perspective was Henry Ogrodnichek, who for 21 years has videotaped the event for broadcast on the city’s local-government cable-access channel. A recent accident kept Ogrodnichek from his usual post this year, but in honor of his past service, he was given a spot of honor in the procession.
People whooped as the units went past, but they saved their biggest cheers for Santa Claus, who brought up the rear. At the end of the parade, Santa stepped down from his sleigh to participate in the Conneaut Area Chamber of Commerce’s Lights of Love ceremony in front of Conneaut Savings Bank, where he was quickly mobbed by young fans.
Lights of Love, a Chamber fundraiser, featured a candlelight observance and tree-lighting event. Lights of Love was begun in 1987 as a means to honor and remember loved ones and friends.
“We remember the people who lit up our lives in some ways,” said the Rev. Joyce Shellhammer, who spoke at the ceremony.
The event featured music by the CHS Marching Band and the chimes of the First Congregational-United Church of Christ across the street from the Lights of Love tree.
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