Southside Church, sponsor of the Brownwood Reunion Celebration Parade, announced the 2012 Brownwood Reunion Celebration Grand Parade winners on Tuesday. Cash prizes will be awarded to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place entries in the parade which was held on Saturday during Reunion.
This year’s parade featured 67 entries which consisted of floats, classic cars, performers, and marching bands. Winning entries were chosen by a panel of three judges:
First Place: Oak Ridge Manor (pictured above)
Second Place: Seal Gymnastics
Third Place: Brown County Riders
Approximately 45 volunteers helped organize and work the parade which was sponsored by Southside Church.
Eric Evans of Southside Church stated that the parade went much better than last year, which was the group’s first experience in organizing a Reunion parade.
“We had such a variety of entries and more creative things going on in the parade,” said Evans. “Both the Brownwood and Early schools really got involved.”
Evans stated even before the parade, there was a sense of camaraderie between the two schools.
“There was a fun moment when both bands were warming up that turned into a small ‘battle of the bands’ and each would play a song and then the other would answer,” said Evans. He stated that this friendly competition spread into each schools cheerleading and drill teams as well, making for behind the scenes fun.
Evans stated that it was still a challenge managing placement of the approximately the 1100 individual participants of the parade and managing traffic flow of the approximately 300 parents dropping their students off to participate.
Having more entries proved very interesting according to Evans who stated the last entries were leaving the staging area as the first entries had finished the parade, which sometimes can lead to a traffic jam of sorts within the parade itself.
Appreciation for the City of Brownwood, Reunion organizers, and Southside Church volunteers was expressed by Evans.
“I was really pleased with how the church stepped up, how the Reunion staff was very supportive of us, and how the city was gracious to close the roads as we needed,” said Evans.
Congratulations to the winning entrants, Oak Ridge Manor, Seal Gymnastics and the Brown County Riders.
Click the photo gallery below for a look at all of the entries in the Brownwood Reunion Celebration Grand Parade.
2nd place – Seal Gymnastics
3rd Place – Brown County Riders
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