Christmas Parade of Lights drew crowds to downtown Cape

From dancing candy canes to Elsa the ice queen to a KISS tribute band, this year's Old Town Cape Christmas Parade of Lights had a little bit of everything.

The theme for the 23rd annual parade was "Christmas Carols and Candy Canes," and the floats delivered. Various sizes of candy canes adorned multiple floats, while boxes of the peppermint sticks were distributed by those walking the route.

"It's really good, everything's going really well so far, at least what I've heard of -- no calamities," Old Town Cape project manager Christa Zickfield said.

This year, approximately 95 spaces were reserved in the parade, with radio stations, marching bands, not-for-profit organizations and local businesses creating different Christmas-themed floats to ride downtown.

One local radio station, Real Rock 99.3, and its float partner, MB Systems, brought a special flair to their float: KISS tribute band Rocket Ride made a special appearance.

Rocket Ride originates from St. Louis, but agreed to come to Cape Girardeau for the weekend to perform, ride the float and do a Sunday segment with radio-show host Kirby Ray.

"This has been the year for KISS, with them getting inducted into the hall of fame last year, their new album, being in the Macy's [Thanksgiving] day parade last Thursday, it just seemed like the perfect theme: Merry KISS-mas," Ray said.

The band members, dressed as KISS, were enthusiastic about being on the float, with KISS' hits blaring over the speakers and strobe lights illuminating their rolling stage. Rocket Ride members posed for pictures with fans and said they were happy to make an appearance, their first in a parade.

Farther up along the parade route was Levi's Adventure Trail, the not-for-profit organization raising money for an outdoor nature exhibit behind Discovery Playhouse on Broadway. Levi's Adventure Trail float won best appearance among the not-for-profit floats last year.

Three-year-old Levi Collom from Benton, Missouri, died in 2012 from Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood, and Ellie Collom is still looking for answers for her son's death. She said the disease is rare, affecting 1 in 100,000 children.

Levi's Adventure crew was aboard the float, dressed in superhero costumes. Eco Mom, Lightening Speed Levi, Volcano Magma and Geothermal Equalizer are the four superheros that represent the Collom family, and are the figureheads for the group's fundraising.

The crew has raised nearly $210,000 in the last two and a half years to build the nature trail, and Ellie Collom, Levi's mother, said they finally have enough to start on steps one through three of their five-phase plan.

This is the crew's second year participating in the Parade of Lights, and they hope to bring home their best appearance title once again.

"I think my favorite part is all of our volunteers getting together to work on the project," Levi's grandmother Viney Mosley said. "It's a fun thing for families, it's a family oriented project and the little kids like it. We try to do family type things."

Before the parade, a group of anxious children and their mothers stood at the corner of West End Boulevard and Broadway, waiting for police cars to start up their lights signaling the beginning of the parade.

This was Josie Rutland's first time at the Parade of Lights. She brought her friend with her two children, and Rutland's fiance, with their 3-year-old and 15-month-old daughters.

"They're really excited about the 'Frozen' float we heard about," Rutland said.

People dressed as characters from the Disney movie "Frozen" rode toward the back of the parade, on the Pure Country C106.1 float.

Bob Tucker and his family had worked on the float, and many of his family members made up the cast. His sister-in-law even made the costumes.

As the Pure Country float played "Frozen's" hit song "Let it Go," the characters Kristoff, Elsa, Anna, Sven and Olaf sang along, waiting to make their debut performance parade.

smaue@semissourian.com

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