Will The Dallas Holiday Parade Stay Afloat After Tonight's Deadline?
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - The countdown to Christmas is on with just 41 days left, but those trying to save this year's Dallas Holiday Parade have even less time. Organizers have until 6 p.m. tonight to raise more than $370,000 to save the event.
In addition to the parade needing more donations -- they still need a sponsor.
Things started on a downward trajectory after Children's Health ended their sponsorship of the parade earlier this year. This year would have been the 30th year that floats, balloons, marching bands, city leaders, dancers and the like made their way down Commerce Street for a day of Christmas and holiday cheer.
Getting participants for the parade, previously known as the Adolphus Children's Parade an the Dallas Children's Health Holiday Parade, hasn't been a problem. But Jeffrey Giles, the executive producer of the Dallas Holiday Parade, says the logistics of the parade and the more than 5,000 people ready to march in it are now in limbo.
Giles hit the phones this weekend in an 11th hour effort to find donations and sponsors, and secured about $6,000 in pledges, but the parade needs hundreds of thousands more to meet the payment deadline to cover costs like insurance and security for the event.
Giles said, "We're hanging onto hope that there's somebody out there that looks at this and says, 'This is what we want to do for the community. We want to save that hometown parade.'"
Those still fundraising as the clock ticks down are still hoping that there's a corporation or big organization willing to step into a partnership with the parade -- but at this point it's going to take a Christmas miracle to make it happen.
To date, more than 1,7000 tickets for the parade have already been sold. Giles said if the parade is canceled all of that money will be refunded.
According to their website, the Dallas Holiday Parade regularly draws crowds of more than 450,000 and at times has had more than 350 television stations in some 150 markets syndicating the event.
This years parade is still scheduled to take place on December 2 -- now we wait.
Click here to find out more about the Dallas Holiday Parade.