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Kalina Lashkova, 10, was decked out in Canada gear for the Silly Summer Parade on Whyte Avenue on Canada Day.
Photograph by: Rick MacWilliam , edmontonjournal.com
EDMONTON - Canada Day will be a little less silly this year.
Facing declining parade entries, the Old Strathcona Foundation has cancelled its annual Silly Summer Parade, a thematic, costumed trek of local groups and politicians that has marched westward down Whyte Avenue for the past 25 years, capped with a picnic at the Queen Alexandra School.
The event?s $25,000 cost was covered by a grant and fundraising, Karen Tabor, the foundation?s executive director, said Friday. Because of the resources and volunteer hours required to host it, the board has thought about cancelling it for the past three years.
In the past few months, they?ve shopped the idea around to community leagues and other organizations, but found no other takers. The group is still open to helping another organization put on the event.
?It sort of becomes one of those issues where, like a good TV show, do you cancel it while it?s still great, or try to keep plugging along?? Tabor said. ?It was not a decision made lightly.?
Although Tabor is sad to see the silliness end, the foundation is hoping to focus energies on events that directly deal with their work in preserving and promoting the story of Old Strathcona, a town that merged with Edmonton in 1912. Upcoming festivities include a celebration of Old Strathcona at the Commercial Hotel on July 7, which will include concerts, food vendors and community booths.
The Old Strathcona Foundation was founded in 1974 to combat a planned freeway that would have led to the destruction of a swath of buildings between 103rd and 105th streets. The group has helped restore 15 buildings and played an important role in the beginning of the Fringe Festival.
bwittmeier@edmontonjournal.com
twitter.com/wittmeier
? Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal
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