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Photo by William Zilke
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Jan's School of Dance unveils its unual unpredictable Christmas surprise during last Saturday's parade. This year, gingerbread men hopped from the oven to the parade.
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The hearty townsfolk of the tri-community area braved temperatures in the twenties and wind chills in the teens to watch the annual Belleville Christmas Parade on Saturday. When you have the Belleville High School Marching Band, horses and kids too cute for Hollywood putting on the finest small town parade in the state it's easy to forget Old Man Winter and Father Christmas are going to be here soon.
This year's Grand Marshal was Martha Brown and the vice- Grand Marshal was Kelly Batianis. The Grand Marshal's Loving Cup was awarded to the Early Childhood Development Center's festive, red and white striped "Peppermint Twist" floats which featured a jukebox motif and a huge polar bear. Their impressive entry was so great in size, it took two vehicles and several wagons to move everything down the parade route.
Jan's School of Dance, which is always the wild card in any parade or event they enter because of their creativity in dance and costume, won Best Business float. Their gingerbread men and red and white Santa helpers performed "American Patrol," a typically unpredictable, eclectic choice of material, and "I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas."
Open Arms Lutheran Church put on the dog with their Noah's Ark-themed entry. Their float featured kids dressed as leopards and an ark with animal puppets that were such crowd favorites, the judges had to award them the "Best Community" float designation.
The BHS Tiger Marching Band, which never fails to impress anyone who's ever seen their spectacle of a show, not only are exceptional performers they are superb musicians.
"They're the largest marching band in the state," said Belleville Chamber of Commerce director Janet Millard. "They actually went in and learned their songs for the parade at 9 a.m." The band hit the parade route at 11 a.m. as finely honed as if Christmas carols were their signature songs.
Rawsonville Elementary, St. Anthony Academy, and Cub Scout troops from Elwell Elementary showed their school and community pride and the loudest portion of the crowd seemed to turn out for their support.
But it wouldn't be a Christmas parade without a visit from jolly old St. Nick perched high atop his usual reindeer-less sleigh, a Van Buren Township fire truck. Santa then proceeded to accept a key to the city of Belleville- chimneys being in short supply these days- by Donna Hall. Van Buren Township Supervisor Cindy King was the queen of the airwaves as she displayed a remarkable talent for emceeing the event.
Afterwards Santa set up shop at the Fourth Street Van Buren Fire Department Station and children of all ages lined up to have their photos taken with the jolly old elf.
Jenny Chiu, former owner of the New Pagoda restaurant on Main Street, stopped by to have her picture taken with Santa and make a Christmas wish.
"I'd like to see my mother. I haven't been able to see her in 28 years," she said, "I'd really like to see her soon. I want to say I love her very much."
But Santa and the parade were just the first part of the fun on Saturday. The Belleville Lake Polar Bear Water Skiers lived up to their names and put on a first rate show of thrills, chills and spills. Literally.
"We usually raise $3,000-$4,000 every year for the Belleville Area Food Closet and Girlstown Foundation," said Justin Juriga, who was spending his 30th birthday in below freezing temperatures in water that couldn't have been much more than 40 degrees.
This of course begs the question I have to ask him every year because it just amazes me that anyone would be out without layers of clothing on let alone in wetsuits and less.
The charity work done and the amount of money these guys raise is incredible. But what is wrong with these guys? It's 28 degrees outside!
"Everything's wrong with us," laughed Juriga, "We're water-skiers. This is the sixth year we've done this."
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