Holiday Parade: Under Construction

Holiday Parade: Under Construction
By Brandon Smith
Asst. Dir. Marketing & Membership

On Saturday, November 17th, 2012, The Chambersburg Memorial YMCA participated in the Chambersburg Borough’s 43rd Annual Holiday Parade.  With surprising success, the Y won third place as Best Float. The vision for participating in the competition came to fruition about 10 days before the actual event. Several volunteers (pictured below) began work immediately. Youth Director Matt Kump's idea converted a simple school bus into an exquisite holiday train: The Polar Express.

Volunteers who helped build the float (from L to R): Adam Lynch, Matt Kump,
Chris Misner, Linda Ehrhart, and Brandon Smith

Thanks to Mr. Craig Nitterhouse, the Y was able to store the train-to-be in one of Mr. Nitterhouse's warehouses to avoid weather damage. Once moved, a half-dozen trips ensued to Lowe’s for creating a budget bus-train.

On day one of construction, the Y volunteers sought the counsel of Terry Ellis and Dave Manges, the Y's facilities gurus. With their help, they engineered a rib-like frame to act as a brace set overtop the bus, securing it length-wise with more boards and underneath the bus with rope.

Days two and three consisted of cutting a 2000 square-foot plastic sheet to fit over the top and stapling it to the frame. Volunteers Linda Erhart, Adam Lynch, Alexis Dubbs, and Chris Misner spent most of the day cutting out the windows and taping the sheeting to the underbelly of the float, as well as finalizing some of the painting that needed done for black cardboard.

On Thursday, two days before the parade, they completed the front of the bus by painting and taping up the grill (a.k.a “the cow plow”), hung bells and secured a heavy-duty flashlight to the top to act as our headlight. As this occurred, others trimmed up the frame and hung railing to give a 3D effect.

Friday the 16th, the group hung lights and other decorations. In the small 10-day time frame, a black “trash bag” bus turned into a train: The Y Express, more specifically. However, Friday's product paled in comparison to its appearance the night of the parade.

In the words of our Executive Director Dave Matthews, “I was sitting on Washington Street and saw this giant black...thing turn the corner. It was breathtaking. When it faced me, it looked like a giant Darth Vader helmet was coming at me!” he said with enthusiasm.

“However, as it passed by, you saw the lights and the children hanging out the windows singing Christmas carols, Matt [Kump] leaning out the front with his costume and moustache, and then it all made sense - everything came together. It was incredible!”