A cherished Christmas parade will return to north Sunnyvale this 12 months following a decade-long hiatus.
The Lakewood Village’s volunteer-run Christmas Parade was as soon as a well-liked annual custom the place dozens of group members would don Christmas-themed costumes and march from Lakewood Elementary College to close by Fairwood Park.
Through the years, volunteers turned deterred from internet hosting the occasion because of the intense planning and workload, resulting in the parade’s disbandment in 2015. However this season, a brand new cohort of Lakewood neighbors are on a quest to revitalize the December occasion, and produce again a way of group and vacation spirit to the neighborhood.
“A number of people in the neighborhood said they hoped to to get the parade going again,” stated volunteer Rena Flovin. “Some of the neighbors volunteered to help, so we thought we’d give it a go and do it.”
This 12 months’s parade will happen on Dec. 14 at 11 a.m. The mile-long route will as soon as once more start at Lakewood Elementary and at Fairwood Elementary. The occasion is open to the general public, and refreshments will probably be supplied at close by Fairwood Park. Sunnyvale cops will halt visitors because the parade makes its route east alongside Lakehaven Drive earlier than crossing Lawrence Expressway persevering with down Sandia Avenue to the park.
Roughly 150 contributors will probably be featured within the parade, together with native Lady Scouts, carolers from Sunnyvale Christian College and the Fremont Excessive College Marching Band. Native leaders may also be in attendance, together with newly elected Meeting Member Patrick Ahrens, District 6 consultant Eileen Le and Sunnyvale Metropolis Supervisor Tim Kirby.
The occasion will function a hearth engine supplied by the town’s Division of Public Security, full with a Santa Claus and elf. Parade goers are additionally inspired by the affiliation to deliver an unwrapped toy or reward card to donate to the Sunnyvale Neighborhood Companies Toy Drive for native households.
The festivities are organized by the Lakewood Village Neighborhood Affiliation (LVNA), a volunteer group that signify greater than 1,600 households in Lakewood Village. The neighborhood is situated north of Freeway 101 in Sunnyvale, and features a part of the Lawrence Expressway.
Lakewood’s first vacation parade was placed on by the affiliation in 1959, however ended someday within the Seventies for unknown causes. LVNA volunteers introduced had again the parade and different neighborhood actions in 1989.
December use to be an thrilling time for Lakewood the group, Flovin stated. Her youngsters and different neighborhood youngsters seemed ahead to collaborating within the Christmas parade yearly.
Tony Bugna, a vp for the LVNA, stated parades are an opportunity for neighbors to spend high quality time with each other. “You always see people having a good time,” he stated.
Lakewood’s parade is smaller in measurement in comparison with close by ones, together with Los Gatos’s and San Jose vacation parades, which might deliver hundreds of contributors and onlookers. However Bugna stated the LVNA and parade volunteers simply need to accomplish that one thing enjoyable for the vacations.
“We want to bring a sense of community,” he stated. “We want to bring people together and also raise awareness about the LVNA.”
