Too early to think about December and Christmas? Not if you are Downtown Revitalization Corporation Executive Director Maggie O’Neill and have to plan for an event that will last about an hour but draw at least 15,000 people to downtown Wake Forest. And not if you also have to plan for the Autumn Arts Festival on Oct. 9 that will see at least 5,000, probably more, people downtown as well as the Lighting of Wake Forest on Dec. 3 and Pictures with Santa on two Saturdays, Dec. 4 and 11.
That is why O’Neill needs a chairman now for the parade, a job that involves coordinating a lot of volunteers – and volunteers are the next need – and a schedule for the day that has to be executed as close to the minute as possible. Lining up all those floats, organizing all those children and older folks who ride on the floats, getting the correct lineup to MC Brian Pate, making sure all the local and out-of-town dignitaries are greeted by a committee representative and escorted to the correct car or, in some cases, truck or carriage – the volunteers do yeomen’s duty and the chairman has to keep it all straight and running.
O’Neill knows there is someone out there who would just love to do the job.