FFA in the Christmas Parade

By Abby Velasquez

The Christmas parade was held on December 2, this year 2019. The parade was a fun celebration for what’s coming ahead this month, important holidays such as Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

The event took place on Main Street, down Candy Cane Lane. As the parade was about to start, Mr.Coon shared memorable things that happened on that very day.

He thought the Christmas parade was “a big tradition and we just put ourselves out there in hopes of having fun.” He believes Christmas is not only about presents. Christmas is significantly a celebration for people to be united.

Mr. Coon’s experience before the parade was hectic while working on crafting his idea for the event. “It was very stressful, we were always panicking to make things perfect.” After facing the public, things got a little bit better compared to his previous reaction.

Their history of having participated in this parade has been ongoing for years. FFA has participated in the parade for the twelfth time this year.

He was never less enthusiastic about the parades, “We want to be together to make Visalia a happy place and making somebody’s day is where everybody wins.”

Tessa Hemphill, ’22, was able to animate things and bring out the crowd’s attention. She managed to take the spotlight other parade floats were getting for FFA’s float.

She feels “We had a lot of fun with just waving at the public, we helped to set up the floats and it was an amazing experience.” They had lots of help setting up but it was mostly the kids who had the vision for the float.

FFA is hoping to be involved in this event again to have even more fun next year and also continuing the experience for any new students.