2014 Christmas Parade Float
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VVA Chapter 1069 participated in the El Campo Christmas parade, held on Thursday, December 4th, 2014. This was the 2nd year that our chapter participated in the Christmas parade. Thursday was a pleasant overcast day in El Campo, with temperatures in the 70s. All of which resulted in thousands of parade well-wishers lining the entire parade route. |
The entire float was prepared on Thursday morning & afternoon. Much thanks goes out to Leonard Sternadel, James Kulcak and Ed Kulcak for working on the float Thursday morning, cutting and installing side boards on the 42' trailer, and then also installing the hog wire to the side boards. In the afternoon, additional Chapter members helped with various tasks such as wrapping the trailer and simulated bunker with camo cloth, attaching signs and logos to the sides of the trailer, installing the lighting, setting up the music and PA system, etc. Work continued on the float until around 5:30 PM, when at that time the float was moved to the parade staging location near the El Campo H-E-B store.
The parade started at 7:00 PM and our float's position was the 3rd position at the head of the parade. The parade lasted about 45 minutes. And thanks to the great weather, thousands of people lined the parade route! We played snippets of the more well recognized Vietnam-era music (58 songs total) all during the parade ride, along with many repetitions of Goooood Morning Vietnam. The MP3 song files were provided by Bob Supak. Bob also provided repeated announcements over the PA system during the ride, that included a brief "Merry Christmas" shout-out from VVA Chapter 1069, along with a brief comment about our surrounding county & town wide membership, and then adding a final "WE ARE ... THE VIETNAM VETERANS OF AMERICA!"
The Chapter would like to thank those members who helped Thursday afternoon with the float preparation, including, Leonard, Sternadel, James Kulcak, Rusty Butts, Louis Milder, John Steelman, Kenneth Sternadel, Ed Kulcak, George Schmermund, Jimmy Neumann, Bob Supak. A special thanks goes out to James Kulcak for allowing his place of business to be used as the staging area for the float build and also used as a pre-parade gathering site for Chapter members. This year, James also volunteered his truck to pull the parade float and plus, he served as the float pulling driver - and did a very nice job too - much Thanks goes out to James Kulcak! There was a great effort to complete the float on Thursday afternoon in order to get it ready for the parade, and the Chapter thanks all those who came out to help.
The Chapter would like to also thank our local Veteran supporter (M.R.) for providing the 46' trailer that served as the parade float for our Chapter. We greatly appreciate the help!
By mid afternoon, the float was pretty much ready. However, it still needed the Christmas lights to be strung and the Christmas tree to be mounted atop the bunker.
Photo above shows Leonard and Louis assembling the small Christmas tree that would be set atop the bunker.
The Christmas tree had just been purchased at the local Walmart. Yep, she's a beauty!
Photo above shows John setting the small Christmas tree atop the bunker.
Leonard pitches in to help John. James is most likely telling the boys how to do it right.
Photo above shows the completed float. We purchased a whole new set of Christmas lights for this year's float. They are still LED lights but are much larger and brighter than the lights we used last year.
Photo above shows the PA sound/music system we again used this year. The PA system was used to play Vietnam-era music during the parade route. It was also used to make periodic announcements to give a "Merry Christmas frmo VVA Chapter 1069" shoutout to the attending crowds. The PA system was provided by Bob, and who also served as music DJ and announcer during the parade.
Photo above shows the completed float.
This year we also attached our Chapter banners to each side of the float and also added the POW flag.
Photo above shows the entire float attached to James' pickup. And it was a bit of a challenge for James to pull that 46' trailer, but he did a fine job. Thanks much James!
Photo above shows the completed float. At this point, the generator, located in the back of James' pickup is running and all the lights are working!
Photo above shows what it looks like from inside the bunker. At this point, we are sitting in the parade line, waiting to be placed at our starting position in the parade.
Photo above shows us waiting before parade start time.
Time for a bit of good old shop talk.
Photo above shows the float just before the start of the parade.