Lighted Boat Parade

The Hells Canyon Boat Club is resurrecting the lighted boat parade.   It will be the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  Registrations are available at both Valley Boat and Riverview Marina.  There was an article in todays paper.

The once-celebrated lighted boat parade is getting some new wind in its sails from members of the Hells Canyon Boat Club after a nearly 10-year hiatus.

Mike Browne, owner of Valley Boat and Motor in Lewiston, is spearheading the resurrected event this year with some organizational changes that are expected to brighten spirits this holiday season.

The boat parade had traditionally been held the Saturday before Christmas, Browne said, but will now be the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The weather is expected to be warmer, said Bruce Larson, commodore for the boat club, who is assisting Browne in organizing the parade.

“That’s when everyone starts to think about the holiday season and the weather is better,” Larson said.

Larson said Browne approached the club last month about starting the parade again, reminding its members the purpose of the organization is to further recreational boating activities.

“This is a great example of it,” he said. “We just wanted to provide boat owners with a little fun and at the same time do something for the community.”

Colleen Squires remembers the first lighted boat parade in 1986, when she worked at Riverview Marina, which orchestrated the event each year until 2000. There were 26 entries the first year, she said, adding one year there were as many as 56 entries.

“It was the most amazing thing that our valley had going for us,” said Squires, who acts as an unofficial historian of the parade. “I have every entry that was ever made and every permit that was ever issued.”

Squires said she remembers the elaborate lights people placed on their boats, including a computerized Snoopy throwing snowballs at Charlie Brown.

“There’s a multitude of outdoor lighting deals that people can put on boats,” Browne said, adding he already has 20 entries for the parade and would love to have 100. “You just stick all kinds of stuff on it. You get carried away and you can do all kinds of things.”

Bud Fairfield, a member of the boat club, will be driving the flagship, he said, to be accompanied by a number of lights – not all of which, he said, he and his wife will agree on.

“I’ve got a big American flag and I’ll string it right across my boat and have floodlights on it,” Fairfield said. “Mike told me to doctor up my boat. I don’t know what we’ll come up with, but it’ll be lighted.”

Boats are expected to launch around 3 p.m. Nov. 28 and will tether to each other below the Southway Bridge prior to the parade starting at 4:30 p.m., Browne said.

“This tethering, I think, is a great way to go,” he said, because past parades started with boats everywhere in the Snake River. “This should be a safe way to do it.”

Boats will be untethered from each other when the parade starts and head to Swallows Park before turning around and heading to the Interstate Bridge before ending back at the Southway Bridge, Browne said.

Participants can register for the parade at Valley Boat and Motor or Riverview Marina.

Squires said the added benefit of having the boat parade the Saturday after Thanksgiving is valley residents will have a reason to stay in the area during Black Friday. Not to mention the weather should fare better, she said, adding people watched the parade one year when the temperature was 13 degrees.

The valley needs the parade to return, she said, because she thinks it is one of the few events where “everybody would come together.”