2014 Florence Christmas Parade WINNERS Announced

The 2014 Florence Christmas Parade brought the sights and sounds of the holidays to historic downtown Florence and kicked off the holiday season. Over 85 floats, bands and performance groups marched, danced, sang and twirled their way down North Court Street to the delight of the spectators. Even Santa was on hand to wave at the crowd and shared some sweet treats.Florence Main Street was responsible for the coordination of this year’s parade. “There’s not much more fun than a parade and the Christmas parade really gets everyone into the holiday spirit!” said Teryl Shields, Executive Director of Florence Main Street. “There’s no better way to get excited about Christmas than seeing all the cute kids and great costumes, hearing the wonderful bands from our community play holiday music and watching the floats go by.” Winners of the parade prizes were Best Band – Wilson High School; Best Performance Group – Sole Dance Studio; Best Business Float – Champion Cheer Athletics and Best Non-Profit Organization—Faith Church.“Thanks to everyone who participated in the 2014 Christmas parade. This parade gets such great interest and support from the community and this year’s bands, floats and dancers were fantastic” said Shields. First Southern Bank was the parade sponsor this year and Florence Main Street thanks them for being so enthusiastic! First Southern Bank offered hot chocolate and balloons to parade spectators from their office on South Court Street. They also coordinated schedules with the North Pole so Santa could be here. The smiles on the faces of the little ones as Santa rode by on his sleigh were priceless! We offer First Southern Bank HUGE thanks for their sponsorship of the Christmas parade as it is through sponsorship that the parade can happen and prizes are available to be given. Big River Broadcasting served as the media sponsor and helped to get the word out about the Christmas parade and we thank them for all their hard work sharing the parade message.And the parade couldn’t happen without the fantastic support of the University of North Alabama ROTC who handles logistics on the night of the parade; UNA University Police and the Florence Police Department for all of their hard work providing a safe and secure environment for the parade. Anyone with questions about the parade can contactFlorence Main Street at 256.760.9648.