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player ready...Threatening weather was credited with taking a big bite out of the usual crowd at Zion’s self-proclaimed “largest Labor Day parade in the state” Monday, but those who came were rewarded with a window of dry weather and comfortable temperatures.
The parade was the finale to the 70th-annual Zion Jubilee Days over the holiday weekend.
Carla Villalobos, a member of the Jubilee Days Committee, said storms traveling throughout the area had everyone on edge, and led to several parade entrants not attending, as well as a smaller crowd than usual.
“Everyone’s phones were blowing up this morning, but we said we were going (forward) at 1 p.m. unless there was lightning,” she said. “We lost a lot of entrants; a lot of people didn’t show up. The ones who came are troopers.”
But Sheridan Road was still lined with hundreds of people as the parade stepped off as planned, and there was no lack of entertainment, from the grace and talent of the Jesse White Tumbling Team to the colorful floats designed to fit this year’s Jubilee Days theme, “Let the Games Begin.”
“Just an awesome parade,” said this year’s event chairman, Mike Pobiecke. “It’s almost like the storms took a break to let us get it in. It started raining again right after it ended.”
Villalobos said the theme was not so much a nod to the Olympics as a chance for community groups to get creative.
Zion Cub Scout Pack 663 won the award for “Best Animation” on a float with a larger-than-life depiction of the scouts’ nationally held Pinewood Derby.
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers kept the labor in Labor Day with a colorful float and a sign that asserted “Unions — we brought you weekends.”
Several local and state politicians from both major parties also marched in Zion on Monday.
The Zion Genealogical Society sold food and beverages at the event as one of the group’s main fundraising activities to help operate and equip the Genealogy Room at the Zion-Benton Public Library.
Joanne Layne, a co-founder of the society, said she has been a regular at the parade for years, and that the numbers were significantly down this year, although the food booth seemed to be doing a brisk business.
“This is really unusual,” she said of the toned-down crowd size.
As with most parades, mad dashes for free candy were part of Monday’s event, and 3-year-old Emerson Sancho had collected a pretty large bag of candy on which his mother, Stephanie, kept an eye.
Meanwhile, Emerson’s 6-year-old sister Bianca was less interested in the candy and more interested in the “batons.”
She said her favorite part of the parade was the performance of the Razzle Dazzles Baton Corps.
In addition to the parade, the annual Jubilee Days Festival included a Sunday night performance by the Lake County Symphony Orchestra in the Zion Park District Bandshell and the Miss, Jr. Miss and Little Miss Zion pageant.
The city, the park district and several civic, business and individual supporters sponsored the annual event.
