ST. PAUL - The St. Paul Rodeo parade took place on Aug. 30. Parade floats made their way through the streets of St. Paul, with participants tossing candy to bystanders, while also showing off their float-decorating skills.
The parade is an annual tradition held during the Lakeland Rodeo Association (LRA) finals on the Labour Day long weekend.
According to Annette Chamberland, who co-ordinated this year’s parade on behalf of the St. Paul Ag Society, everything went well.
She said there was no theme this year because “there was no milestone that we could think of for the area or the province.”
Another issue was a lack of manpower to judge parade entries.
“It seems like we ask the same individuals year after year,” said Chamberland. “We just made it simpler.”
A lack of theme and prizes was not a deterrent to the 61 participants.
Businesses, local politicians, and non-profit groups all lined up to travel along the 3.2 kilometre parade route, which looped past St. Paul Elementary School and Extendicare before continuing across town to the rec centre.
“Next year . . . we are going to be changing the end of the parade route because there's so much congestion at corner of the Rec Center south. So we will be definitely looking at that closer,” said Chamberland, who theorized the parade would likely end at the landing pad instead of turning south on 53 Street.
