Go Big or Go Home......Independence Day 2013

The excitement, like the humidity was palpable in Montpelier on Wednesday afternoon. It was parade time again, and my bank was submitting another of its now legendary floats (see prior posts). You see since we opened up shop in Montpelier back in 2001 we have had a float submission in the annual parade, this year would be no different. Well actually it would be different, in a big way, so big in fact that we had to add a float to accomodate the level of awesomeness we planned to bring! And we were convinced the kids in the crowd would really appreciate our level of madness this year! (let me pre apologize for the level of exclamation points and use of the term awesome (in all its forms)).



The crew pre parade, it would be a hot humid ride, and we all dropped a few pounds along the way, but thankfully we were prepared to stay properly hydrated!

  The most fun about this year's parade was that we had a wonderful mix of folks helping out with the floats. Jackie, one of our unstoppable tellers, and her son and soon to be daughter in law brought their A game in a big way! Jackie was our Chewbacca, and her son and DIL came in homemade Sith (if you don't know what a Sith is stop reading now) costumes to terrify the little parade attendees! Jackie's husband once again stepped up to help get the floats decorated! Jackie's boy also brought along a vintage Return of the Jedi Stormtrooper costume, that a customer, Mr. Scott (Scotty too Hotty) Kerner, happily wore for the show to include a jet black, full body lycra bodysuit (I remind you it was 80 something with 199% humidity!)!


Unimogging

Did I mention Ms. Regan Howard and Mr. Pat Malone taking the time to drive their wicked sweet Unimog so we could get all our folks up and off the street? I had no idea what a Unimog was but after seeing this bad boy I want one! Joe Preddy, from our trust group (CFSG), showed up as a stormtrooper as did yours truly. We can always rely on JP to take one for the team!




This thing had a hand grenade for a shifter, seriously, how sweet is that?



It doesn't stop there, we randomly tossed in the Statue of Liberty, eloquently played by Natalie out of Montpelier and who can forget Princess Lorraine, err I mean Princess Leia?? And how about the forelorned walkers?? Joanne, Kathy, Linda (1) and Linda (2) and Jen kept a good pace to keep up with our little army of awesomeness. So we had a beautiful mix of workers, family, friends and customers all helping out!




The pre game was as much fun as the actual parade, with a few customers popping by to check out the scene!

 

And how could we forget the annual operator of our main float Putt, who somehow is 12 for 12 in not losing any of the fine folks perched atop the float (and trust me we were operating at a balance disadvantage based on the pre game festivities). 




All hands on butt! No one said we were an eloquent bunch and the Unimog was a bit of a challenge to get up into BUT many hands make for easy work. How many bankers does it take to get a Princess in a Unimog? Turns out a commercial lender, teller and mortgage lender!


  We spoke to a ton of folks in the crowd that commented that when they heard John Williams "Imperial March" and saw our floats round the corner there was a wave of excitement that flowed through the crowd of 20,000 strong! The Stormtroopers, armed with water guns, couldn't spray the crowd fast enough to cool them down! We heard a ton of "that's my bank!" which is always fun and saw so many friendly, familiar faces throughout the parade route! The humidity had an added bonus, anyone that was in a costume easily dropped 10 pounds from start to finish!




Vader's Fist


So now we start planning for next year but frankly its going to be difficult to top this one! A big thanks again to all of you that came to help, participate or that cheered us on along the way! Booyakasha!

 

Princess Lorraine stole the show!




Pretty sure if the neighbors on Winter Street never hear the "Imperial March" again they will be ok with that! and yes, we threw the Statue of Liberty on the float, random I know, but we thought it was funny...