Three opportunities to ‘let your little light shine’ for the holidays
What’s better than a parade? A parade you get to be in.
There will be three opportunities to join in lighted holiday parades in the coming two weeks — one on the water and two on dry land.
The wetter of three will be in Gig Harbor this weekend, as the Gig Harbor Yacht Club hosts its annual Lighted Boat Parade.
The other two are car parades — one on the Key Peninsula and the other winding through Gig Harbor. Both are on Saturday, Dec. 19, and both welcome all participating vehicles, lighted, decorated or not.
Kimber Lawrence is organizing the parade in Gig Harbor. It will take place from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Cars will meet at the YMCA to go to the Galaxy Theaters. There will be two different routes. Interested participants can contact kimber.lawrence67@gmail.com for more information.
“I have never done anything like this before,” Lawrence said. “We have the lighted boat parade but only the people that have boats or that live on the water on the harbor get to attend that.”
The boat parade, sponsored by the Gig Harbor Yacht Club, is set to take place this Saturday, Dec. 12 at 5 p.m. Interested participants can email ghyclightedparade@gmail.com with their name, boat name and length, email address and homeport or club.
The route will go from Arabella’s Marina to the City Dock area, then turn inside the harbor entrance before turning again to pass by Anthony’s and the marinas followed by one finale pass by Arabella’s and the City Dock before doing it all again.
Food bank benefit
The car parade is a benefit for the FISH food bank and participants are encouraged to bring perishable food items plus toys. A trailer will be collecting the donations at the conclusion.
Stephanie Brooks, who also owns Gnosh Food Truck, is hosting a light parade on the Key Peninsula later that same evening.
“They can contact me through the Gnosh food page,” Brooks said. “It’s basically just showing up, have your car, your horse, your dog, your trailer, whatever you want to bring lit up. It could be a tractor, it could be anything. We’re just asking people to use social distancing and be as safe as possible.”
Brooks will be holding her event at 7 p.m. in the unincorporated town of Home on the Key Peninsula. The parade will begin at Key Peninsula Highway and A Street and proceed down A Street.
“It’s an amazing community,” Brooks said. “It’s a great community with a lot of very, very caring people.”
This story was originally published December 9, 2020 at 8:10 AM.
