The Camp Verde Parks and Recreation Department sent out the following press release on Thursday, Dec. 10.
The Town of Camp Verde Parks and Recreation has made the difficult decision to cancel the annual Christmas Parade of Lights Drive-thru version due to lack of parade entries. After cancelling the original Light Parade, Parks and Recreation staff came up with a plan for a drive-thru event where the floats and parade entries were stationary and the “crowd” could drive thru, keeping everyone safe. Staff understands the community’s desire to have opportunities and worked hard to make this event happen, with cooperation and a lot of work completed by the Streets and Maintenance Departments at the Camp Verde Sports Complex. However, with only 4 parade entries as of 3:00 on Thursday, we had to make a decision. Parades take community involvement in the form of parade entries and crowd, but without parade entries, there is no event. We did have discussion about trying to have another form of this event, but at this point, it is hard to get the word out to the community and also hard for staff to scramble and put together a successful event.
Parks and Recreation looks forward to next year and the hope that we can get back to more normal activities and events very soon.
Please know that we do not take lightly our decision to cancel or postpone any program or event, and we will continue to monitor our local situation as we move forward. If we can reschedule these events at a later time or with other modifications to make them safer we will. Our goal is to continue to monitor conditions and provide programming opportunities that are as safe as possible for all involved. Feel free to contact us at parks@campverde.az.gov or 928-554-0820 Option # 3.
