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Tragedy Cancels 25 Year Plant City Tradition

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by DALE HOKREIN

The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 6, 2008

Organizers for the Plant City Christmas Parade have canceled the event this year, the first time in at least 25 years and perhaps since World War II.

It marks the second year the event was touched by tragedy, and organizers spent months striving for a well-prepared parade.

"We planned for this for two years," said Fran Neilsen, co-chair of the parade. "I just feel so sorry for those families and for those children with everything happening and them not knowing what was going on (Friday), and then not to have a parade. They have to be concerned and confused."

The decision follows Friday's manhunt and capture of a shooting suspect that forced schools into a lock down situation and prevented the parade from proceeded as planned Friday night. Police swept the area for evidence into the night and long after the suspect was apprehended. Last year, a 9-year-old boy was killed by a moving float as he was helping hand out candy beside it.

The primary reason for not rescheduling this year is that there are so few opportunities to do so before the holiday.

"There are a lot of other communities that have parades elsewhere where school bands participate, and when they're out of school, the bands are not going to have the busses to take them," she said.

The town's population of roughly 33,000 swells by four times its size as people from across the Bay area make the trip to Plant City for the parade, Neilsen said. The parade has never been canceled in the 26 years she's been involved with the event, and she said the last time may have been during World War II when the festival was suspended because of the war.

Now, she and 30 other volunteers will turn to planning next year's parade, set for Dec. 4, 2009.

"I hope that next year nothing happens. It's really something that the community cherishes," she said.

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