A sudden ice and snow storm stuck Illinois and the surrounding states the day before the event. The power went out in the morning and the recording at Ameren CIPS said that 500,000 customers were without power and it may be two to three days before power was restored. http://s54.photobucket.com/albums/g89/M ... 168336.pbw
Fortunately, they were wrong. Power came back on several hours later and after confirming that the parade was still on, all concern that our celebration would be cancelled was erased.
Members of the Midwest Garrison started arriving Friday night before the event. When the sun rose Saturday morning we realized that an inch of ice covered the float. With hammers and brooms in hand, Kevin (tk669) and Amanda Lehning, Tom Schaffer (tk118) and Andrew Marsh (TA2079) cleared the ice and added our candy cane support stands to prepare the float.
We made it to the Staging area and met Rich Markle (SL-1781), Ryan (TK-2429) and Anna (Princess Leia) Summers, Mark Berry (BH-4265) and Belinda Montag (ID-5187) and had breakfast at McDonalds Family Restaurant (not a golden arches). Afterwards the members moved indoors at Sign Language, our sponsor, and got dressed. Little did Loran Greenwell, the proprietor of Sign Language and parade chairman, know that there would be Wookie Hair all over his work area.
We boarded the float and hung on while we made our way to the parade route. We made it just in time to make our position in the parade.
With the skies clear and bright, the sight of Lord Vader, Chewbacca, Boba Fett , a Crimson Guard, Stormtrooper, ATAT Pilot and Princess Leia surprised and delighted the children and adults alike. As we pulled onto the main street of Fairbury one ounce bags of marshmellows flew out to the waiting mittens of the folks on the side lines. Shouts of "We Love You Chewbacca!"and "There is Still GOOD in You Anakin!" rang out to the cords of the "Imperial March" as we drove down the main street of Fairbury.
As the parade ended we pulled back around and parked the float in front of the Gazebo where the characters met the public. We were then directed into the Chamber of Commerce Offices where lo and behold there was DARTH KRINGLE! A wily sith lord disguised as a Jolly Old Elf.
After many more pictures with the children of the town we boarded the float and returned to our staging area
http://s54.photobucket.com/albums/g89/M ... 168182.pbw
PARTICIPANTS
TI/ID-3853----Jim DeJan Float Pilot
TI/ID-1802----Emily DeJan Float Co-Pilot
SL-1781----Rich Markle Darth Vader
TK-2429--------Ryan Summers TROOPER
GUEST---------Anna Summers Princess Leia
DZ- 0669-------Keven Lehning THE MIGHTY CHEWBACCA
GUEST----------Amanda Lehning WOOKIE Handler
TK/TI/ etc.-----0118 Tom Schaefer CRIMSON GUARD
BH-4265--------Mark Berry Boba Fett
ID-5187--------Belinda Montag Trail Car Pilot
TI/TA-2079----Andrew Marsh ATAT Pilot
ICE WORLD photo credit to Belinda Montag and Mark Berry who also contributed shots to the Photobucket for the parade.
I promise you, people like that do exist...plus it would be really helpful with article submissions to the various places they go, be they hyperspace, our own front page of the site, or into the newsletter. Sometimes you can just take snatches from what everyone else said and compile them into one lump summary. It's a little trickier, because of the shifting perspective and everyone remembering something different as a high point...you can get people who attended an event to talk about it by posting favorite pictures from it and discussing what was going on in the shot. 
