41st ANNUAL KAMLOOPS EASTER PARADE 2011
Easter Parade Chairman Dick Parkes
Photos by Dave Dickinson

   
Each year we start our Easter Parade Sunday off with a
Pancake Breakfast in Westsyde Park.
With Easter being later this year the weather was fantastic
which made for a great way to start the day.


Steve Bell & Don Potts wait for the crowd to appear


The club cook trailer comes in very handy as we
also use it for our Swap Meets

Steve  starts the pancakes to cooking
While Don  checkes them out
Niki Bone, Vicky Wallin,  Keith Galbraith & John Rostron wait until breakfast is called

Marilyn & Gerry Gerow are talking to
Ernie McNaughton
 [the collector of the $4.00 breakfast fee]

Vicky & Noella watch while Jerry eats his breakfast
Appears that Barb is keeping and eye on her dad (Ron Buck)

Following the pancake breakfast the cars line up at the Westsyde Mall with the parade starting at 1:00 pm.
Each year we have a different marque as the feature car and this year it was
"Pierce Arrow".
With the weather being so nice we had 132 cars which is a record for us.


Glenn Gallagher's 1929 Pierce Arrow

CARS GALORE
from 1911 - 1986


Clubs 1945 Ford Wrecker towing Jerry Wallin's 100 year old 1911 McLaughlin

Parade Marshall Dick Parkes
1938 McLaughlin-Buick


Clubs 1937 Ford LaFrance Fire Truck




Very Rare 1932 Rockne



Chapter President Bob Gieselman



The Kamloops Shrine Club Keystone Kops.
They have been great supporters of our
Easter Parade. 

Doesn't look like the bad guy is too worried.

The RCMP is great at keeping the parade together and moving
The Shriners Motor Corps provide traffic control at intersections for us
Engel & Audrey Beaumeester have a good laugh
at something.


Seems like these cars always have top problems as they always have their tops open at the shows.

We had the pleasure of the Kamloops Rube Band playing for the crowd as they waited for the cars to arrive at Riverside Park.

 41st Annual Easter Parade Summary

     My thanks go out to everyone who participated in some way in our 2011 Easter Parade. The excellent weather resulted in a record turnout of 132 vintage vehicles driving the usual parade route and we had good crowds at the Westsyde Shopping Center, along the route and at Riverside Park. Our parade could not have happened without the attendance of the RCMP and the RCMP Auxiliary to provide traffic control with assistance from the Shrine Motor Corps and “cleanup” provided at no cost by Mike’s Auto Towing. We thank all these good folks for their time and efforts.  A late surprise was the performance at Riverside Park by the Kamloops Rube Band which added a little pizzazz to the event.

    There were no major problems with the parade festivities this year other than a bit of a fire drill at the beginning as there were about a dozen cars already lined up before we even got there to set up the registration tables. The increased number of cars entering the parade resulted in some creative parking by the registration guys, but it all seemed to work out fine in the end.  We have been put on notice that we may not be able to use the Westsyde Shopping Center as our staging area next year due to the proposed redevelopment of the mall, so we need to start thinking about where we could stage our parade in the future.  Please send me your suggestions, just in case we need to relocate next year. 

     All in all, another great event that our Club can be proud of. After all, how many other parades and similar events in Kamloops have lasted for 41 years?    Dick Parkes rparkes@telus.net