Holiday parade brightened downtown as volunteers and attendees
spread the spirit of giving
By Betsy Avelar
Gilroy – In the spirit of making wishes come true for the holidays, the annual downtown Christmas parade attracted more than 500 people, including one little girl who understands better than most the spirit of Christmas.
“Christmas is about giving,” said 9-year-old Kiera Sowders, who is raising funds to pay for a little boy’s cleft lip operation. Kiera leaned on her mother’s arms while they watched the blinking lights of a Christmas tree after the parade. Sowders collected cans to raise $250 for Operation Smile, an international program that runs missions throughout the year in 25 countries around the world. The group funds surgeries for children with a cleft lip.
“All he wants is to look like everybody else,” Kiera added while enjoying the song “Noel” sung by the Gilroy High School Chamber singers.
Other children visited Santa in the chamber breezeway that connects Monterey Street and the parking lot off Eigleberry Street. Lena Neumann, 5, was dressed in a red Santa suit and had already dropped off her wish list for Christmas.
“She was sure that Santa would get it,” said her mother, Dagmar Neumann. Santa would find her gifts on Amazon.com she added because “he probably has a computer.”
Lena Neumann participated in the parade that started at 5:30pm, followed by entertainment from violinists from the Suzuki youth music group playing while Santa performed the ceremonial tree lighting. Next, David Alexandrou, whose second album was named by a national poll as one of the top 10 children’s records in 2006, performed an assortment of music ranging from classics such as “Mother Goose” to his own compositions, such as “I’m a fish.”
This is the first year that live performances were added to the event and the first year that the parade began at the Caltrain station instead of its traditional starting point behind the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce at 7471 Monterey St.
The parade included the Gilroy High School marching band, a decorated school bus, dance groups, some local church groups, baton twirlers, amongst much more.
A stage was placed at the traditional spot of the downtown Christmas tree at Fifth and Monterey streets and the event was emceed by Mayor Al Pinhiero.
“This is always a fun event,” said event coordinator Erwin Boggs, board member of the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce, who helped coordinate the face painting, balloon making, movie showing, and free snacks from cotton candy, cookies and popcorn. The program was spearheaded by the Chamber of Commerce with support from the Gilroy Downtown Business Association.
Other volunteers such as Dawn Guillen coordinated the live entertainment for the evening and brought along her husband and daughter. She was upset with some stores who did not help publicize the event.
“A lot of the merchants in this town were not willing to put up posters publicizing the event and that’s not right,” she said. Most of the entertainment was planned, except for the Gilroy High School Chamber singers who sang Christmas songs for the audience.
Nine-year-old Sowders, along with her mother Sandy Sowders, enjoyed the songs that evening and talked about how much money they needed to raise for the Operation Smile organization.
“I told Kiera to choose between a present for herself, or the present for the boy,” said Sandy Sowders referring to donating for the operation. Sowders looked at her daughter and waited for her response.
“He would feel really happy that he’s getting his wish,” said Kiera.
