Online bullying affects everyone, including the big bearded guy in the red suit and a local parade committee.
The Cochrane Santa Claus Parade will not be taking flight next year.
“There was a lot of discussion on social media about the route being changed and there were various people within the community that were very supportive of us with the route change and then there were a few people who had a lot of hurtful comments that were directed towards the committee, towards myself, and other people,” said Spencer Seabrook, parade chairman.
“It is just very tough when you are only a committee of six people volunteering your time and there are certain people within the community, who just aren’t very mindful of that.”
The Cochrane Santa Claus Parade committee announced in a press release that they will be turning the parade into a bi-annual event, cancelling the parade for next year, to be resumed in 2017 – with the community visits to remain unaffected.
“We are a small committee and unfortunately the amount of obstacles and resistance that we have faced this year in the planning of the parade has taken all the fun out of it. We would like to take the next year off to take stock and regain our enthusiasm,” states the press release from the Santa Claus Parade committee.
Earlier this month, the Eagle reported on the Cochrane Santa Claus Parade route change. During the inaugural parade year in 2014, the floats drove down historical downtown on 1st St. inviting locals and visitors to watch.
This year citing safety issues (crossing the railway tracks) and needing a place to form up, the committee made the decision to host the parade route on the other side of the tracks going down Railway St. and into The Quarry.
“As many of you know, when our committee started planning for this year’s event, we realized that finding a suitable form-up area for the parade would present a significant challenge. This is due to the redevelopment of last year’s form-up area. It was not suitable for an event of our size and the landlords were also not willing to give us permission to use the lot,” according to the committee.
It was after this announcement when locals and visitors began voicing their opinions on local social media pages, including local business owners about their disappointment in changing the parade route.
“The parade really belongs in historic downtown,” said Karrie Peace, local business owner.
“Downtown was absolutely dead after the parade – it was pretty disappointing.”
While there were noticeably more people in attendance than last year, there were comments on local social media pages from Cochranites before the event, saying they were going to boycott the parade due to location change.
“A lot of people were supportive but there were also people who tried to do everything they could to insist that we have is back on First Street, and at the end of the day we weren’t able to use (the old route),” Seabrook said.
“There are people that are very selfish and want the parade to be in certain spots and it is very hurtful.
“There was a lot of resistance and I’m not going to ‘name names’ but it was very disheartening this year for our committee.”
The new parade route through The Quarry this year was flawless, according to organizers.
With more roadways to work with, the streets were packed with visitors from near and far.
“I would say we had more people than last year – we didn’t have a single problem. No parade incidents. No traffic accidents. No injuries. It was perfect,” Seabrook said.
Town administration said they are sad there will not be a parade next year but they are excited that the event will return in 2017.
“From the town’s perspective, we support all volunteer groups that run the events – we will continue to work with them and find a site that works in the future,” said Suzanne Gaida, senior manager for community services with the Town of Cochrane.
“It is awesome they will be continuing the community visits, as the children in town and lots of people look forward to that.”
Peace said she thinks it is “too bad” the parade is cancelled next year.
“I think it is unfair to blame it on the opposition,” Peace said.
“I hope another group will consider picking it up and make it not political.”
The committee mentioned in their statement that they would like to thank the residents of Cochrane, parade participants, volunteers, community groups, local business owners, event sponsors and visitors for the “ongoing support and positive feedback.”
“We look forward to 2017,” Seabrook said.
