ODA, Rotary take on holiday parade

The Orange County Chamber of Commerce has stepped down from its parade hosting duties, paving the way for the Orange Downtown Alliance (ODA) to take over.
At last week's Orange Town Council meeting, mayor Chuck Mason announced that the chamber would no longer continue organizing and hosting the town's annual Christmas parade. He said the local Rotary club had volunteered to take over the parade responsibilities if the town contributed $1,500 to the cause.
"It's the county chamber, but the parade is a town function which kind of puts them in an awkward situation," town manager Greg Woods said. "They have asked us to try to find someone to [take the event over] for the last two years. The Rotary club does the tree lighting, and volunteered to be involved with [the parade]."
According to Orange County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Barbara Bannar, the chamber took on the Christmas Parade 25 years ago when the Orange Downtown Merchants Association disbanded. At that time, she said, there was not another organization that could do it.
"The parade is a great holiday promotion for the Town of Orange and many town and county residents participate either by being in the parade or watching it," she said. "One of the parade's purposes is to draw a crowd to the Town of Orange during holiday shopping times. Since that makes it a downtown promotion it was felt that after 25 years that a Town of Orange organization would be a better "host" for this event. By including the parade in other holiday events a full weekend of promotions could be created."
According to Bannar, the chamber organizes the Orange Street Festival in town and handles several other events around the county.
"By passing the parade along it will give us a better opportunity to look at all the areas we serve and make sure we are doing the best we can throughout the whole county," Bannar said. "We are proud to pass along an ongoing event and have offered to assist with the transition."
Mason said the town supported the parade financially last year and suggested the Orange Downtown Alliance be involved by providing staffing to run the event.
"I think if we could coordinate everything on one weekend, it would only be good for Orange," he said.
Council member Harry Hopkins suggested the situation be reversed, with the ODA handling the event and the Rotary assisting.
"We are giving ODA $70,000 a year," he said. "To me, this is an ODA project. I think the ODA needs to step up and take responsibility with this. I'm a strong supporter of ODA and I think they need to be involved in downtown stuff."
 Higginbotham said he concurred with Hopkins and said the town council needed to offer support for the event.
"It's a good thing to bring up to the ODA," Mason said. "They're doing lots of things, but we may want to check their Christmas schedule."
Orange Downtown Alliance Executive Director Jeff Curtis said the organization is excited to add the Christmas parade to their list of holiday events.
"There are lots of gaps in this town for an organization to take the lead," he said. "We feel privileged to be handling the parade. We're intent on delivering a three-day Christmas celebration in town, including the parade."
Curtis said the holiday celebration will begin Friday, Dec. 2 when Santa will be at Virginia National Bank and the town will host a Christmas stroll through the streets. Saturday,
Curtis said he hopes to have the Farmer's Market merchants selling greenery and holiday decorations, along with a window display contest for businesses and possibly a town scavenger hunt.
He said Saturday night he hopes to have the Spirit of Christmas event, featuring a concert with three local church choirs.
A similar event last year was cancelled due to winter weather.
Sunday, the town's Christmas celebration will conclude with the parade followed by the annual tree lighting and caroling.
Curtis said the Rotary Club has volunteered to partner with ODA for the parade and tree lighting.
"These events take a lot of manpower," Curtis said. "We're grateful to have their help."
Woods said it's important to keep the parade going in town, regardless of who handles it.
"We don't want it to die," he said. "My feeling is if we let the parade go, getting it back would be very hard. The chamber has volunteered to help on it for the next couple of years so nothing gets dropped, which was nice of them."