Saturday, December 4 is the 65th annual Manassas Christmas Parade. It begins at 10 am rain or shine, cold, or not so cold. The parade lines up in front of Manassas Shopping Center on Mathis Avenue and heads up Center Street, going towards Grant Avenue.
This is a particularly special parade because of our very own star! Cindy Brookshire will reign as Woman of the Year.
Here is Cindy’s bio published on the Christmas Parade website:
Cindy Brookshire has lived in Manassas 29 years and is an active member of Trinity Episcopal Church in Old Town Manassas. She worked for the Prince William Journal newspaper, Publishing Partners, Inc., and is currently a contractor producing monthly newsletters for the City of Manassas. She is an active member of the local Chamber of Commerce and proud member of Leadership Prince William, Class of 2010.
As a community volunteer, Cindy has helped the City win three state and national awards for Neighborhood Improvement Circles (partnering with George Mason University and Unity in the Community) and the Landgreen Street Cleanup (partnering with Weems Neighborhood Watch and Week of Hope). She co-presented “Safe and Livable Neighborhoods” with Patrick Harris of the Virginia Crime Prevention Association and Officer Scott Stallard, City of Manassas Police Department at the Virginia Statewide Neighborhood Conference in 2008. She’s also presented “Connecting Your Community with Neighborhood Improvement Circles” at the National Conference on Neighborhood Concerns in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Because of her outstanding work, Cindy’s neighborhood has the largest Neighborhood Watch that touts over 100 hundred members. Cindy enjoys being a City of Manassas volunteer and continues to be a strong advocate for neighborhoods across the great state of Virginia.
The Grand Marshall will be Mr. RB Thomas of Nokesville. He has lived in the area for 44 years.
There are many local entries in the parade. High school bands, dance teams, twirlers, scouts, step teams, horses, clubs, floats, motorcyles, old cars, and dignitaries. This year those interested can buy a DVD for $10.
Cindy,
I hope you’ve been practicing your “queen’s wave”. 😉
Moon,
Do you think the dancing diablos will be there again? 👿
My camera will be ready for the dancing diablos.
I was thinking about those dancing diablos last night when the first version of the Christmas parade past made the entire blog go bonkers and put the sidebar on the bottom. grrrrrrrrrr. I thought that is probably who got me. Emma, if they are there, please capture their image.
I took the post down and redid it. I have no idea what happened.
Thank, guys. The parade was awesome. I got to shake hands with Sen. Colgan and Del. Miller and ride on the back of a blue 1965 Chevy convertible with a dozen red roses. My driver was a woman named Pam, and I got to wave at everyone, all these little children smiling at me and waving back like I was Miss America. The best part was seeing people I work with in the community every day — neighbors from my Neighborhood Watch cheering me on, folks from the Neighborhoods Work Group saying congratulations and friends from church cheering. I recognized a Moonhowler poster or two! Then I got to sit in the reviewing stand with all the parade judges — real judges like Judge Richard Potter and Judge Steven Smith. They were the best seats ever to see all the participants. No dancing diablos, but lots of great music and dancing. My favorite were the Suburban Gypsies — everyday women of all ages and sizes, bellydancing. Afterwards I went for hot soup and coffee at Trinity Episcopal’s annual Christmas luncheon and ate with Milton Rodgers of Grace United Methodist and Hazel Boyer, who was Woman of the Year in 2008.
Now I’m back to reality and my 15 minutes are over — ready in sweats to rake leaves to the curb so the leaf-sucking truck will vacuum them up on Monday. But oh, the roses look and smell so wonderful in a vase on my table!
Cindy, congratuations again! You rule the day. So glad it was a special day to a deserving person!
Giant does not have peppermint ice cream.
Did you see that with your own two eyes? Or Mr. Moon’s eyes? I NEVER trust a man about items at the grocery store. Remember, he couldn’t find those cookies either. 😉
Cindy, you looked great! Congrats on the honor.
I’ve be looking for a picture of OUR Woman Of The Year on the back of that Chevy.
Lafayette, my daughter took a video. Look at my Facebook wall.
Cindy B — Your fifteen minutes are not over. I have a feeling that the participants on this blog will remember it for much, much longer than that! Thanks , kiddo. You did good.
What a great picture Cindy, you look awesome! You deserve every bit of this honor AND more 🙂
Cindy, I don’t see the video and somebody else mentioned it too.
Check Facebook. I “shared” the video my daughter shot and a photo taken by my friend Erinn, the coordinator for Weems Neighborhood Watch.