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By melody jameson
mj@observernews.net
Sun City Center — For the first time in nearly five years, this community is going to parade its holiday colors and show off its spirit as few others can – in its golf carts.
Reviving a practice last witnessed here in 2004, the “seasonally colorful, sensationally decorated” golf cart exhibition is scheduled to roll out at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, December 12, according to Anne Cross, a SCC Community Association director and parade coordinator.
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| Melody Jameson photo
Preparing to deck out one of his vehicles for the 2009 SCC Holiday Golf Cart Parade, Matthew Aaron, (seated), reviews parade guidelines with Santa’s Elf Anne Cross (aka parade coordinator). Aaron, who, with his father, Richard, opened the AlumaCar golf cart outlet next door to the CVS Pharmacy earlier this month, said he’s going to vie for an award in the business category of the community’s holiday kick-off celebration slated for December 12. Ten days remain to enter the event in one of the five competition categories and to exhibit creative talents as well as community spirit.
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Carts presenting the creativity of both individual residents and numerous organizations in town will assemble at 9:30 AM in the north end of the central campus parking lot, Cross said. From that point, with dignitaries leading the way, they will proceed north on north Pebble Beach Boulevard, make a right turn onto La Jolla, snake along LaJolla for the viewing pleasure of parade watchers, make another right turn onto Cherry Hills, passing in review and holding parade formation until they reach the bandstand in front of the Rollins Theater, Cross noted.
In years past, the coordinator emphasized, “this community staged gorgeous, imaginative golf cart parades inaugurating the holiday season here, even competed with golf cart communities in other counties to successfully top a Guinness Book of Records standard.” But, in time, “the parade lost its spirit of community sharing and became too commercialized; more a billboard of advertisements in motion than a personalized exhibit of holiday pride,” she added.
Yet, Cross pointed out, Sun City Center was among the first such retirement centers in the state “to receive official blessing as a golf cart community” where the small vehicles are accepted as a customary form of transportation and permitted on certain public streets by state statute. “There is no other place where brightly decorated golf carts on parade are more appropriate,” she suggested.
The 2009 parade is not going to be composed entirely of golf carts, however. In addition to invited county officials, including familiar commissioners and department heads in the lead convertible, the local fire station is helping with the traditional color scheme in the form of one of their trucks and SCC’s emergency squad, security patrol, Good Samaritan and CERT volunteers all are to be represented, Cross said.
Tradition will be further carried out through the entertainment along the parade route, she added. The local Sweet Adelines, Memories, a barbershop quartet, PACKids, elementary school-aged songsters directed by Ellen Kleinschmidt, and the Front Porch Pickers with a distinctive twang are to be spotted at various strategic locations, offering their versions of the songs of the season.
As for the carts themselves, “I hear both individuals and organizations now are plotting and planning their decorating schemes,” the coordinator said. Their parade is open to entries from any SCC resident, plus from the numerous clubs, the several churches in the community, the multiple homeowner associations and the businesses that serve SCC, she added. Kings Pointers are conducting their own holiday parade a week earlier, Cross noted.
Deadline for entry in the SCC extravaganza is Saturday, December 5. Entry forms can be obtained from the SCC CA office on north Pebble Beach Boulevard or from the community website, www.suncitycenter.org. In addition, Cross can be reached by email at Acrossscc@aol.com.
“The rules are simple,” she said. “Fifty percent or at least half of the cart is to be decorated in whatever quirky or traditional manner desired using any colors or combination so long as good taste is maintained, and signage is to be kept to two placards.”
Five awards will be made at the parade’s conclusion, one in each cart category – Individual, Club, HOA, Church and Business, Cross said. Winners will be selected by an experienced panel of judges from outside the community, based on originality and how well the chosen holiday theme is portrayed through the cart décor, she added.
Each of the five winners this year will be presented on the spot with a rotating lead crystal vase bearing an engraved plate and stuffed with redeemable prizes such as gift certificates, the coordinator noted. “It is our intention that the goodies in the vase be shared by those taking part in decorating the winning cart in that category,” she added, “while the engraved crystals are entrusted to the winning individuals or organizations for the forthcoming year, his or hers or theirs to display.” At the end of 2010, when the next holiday golf cart parade is held, the crystal vases are to rotate to the next set of winners.
But, taking part in the renewed SCC Holiday Golf Cart Parade is about more than taking away prizes, Cross asserted. “ While it’s an opportunity for neighborhoods scattered across the north and south sides of the community to engage in a little friendly competition over developing unique themes, it’s also a good chance for others to relish the singular pleasure of expressing personal creativity by piecing together bright scraps of material and left over ornaments in a new, different form – all to delight parade watchers,” she said. Cross added “and we do know how to decorate.
“It’s about our sense of community,” she summed up, “and we hope residents, their visitors, families of entrants and those from surrounding communities will come out to share it, along with cider, donuts and our own Santa Claus, tropical style.”
Copyright 2009 Melody Jameson
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