Redeemer families and fans now have yet another reason to be proud of their school.  Several hard-working parents (and one teacher) put together a stunning gingerbread house float that won first prize in the spiritual category – which includes other private schools and several churches — at the annual Harrisonburg Christmas Parade.

Over a thousand spectators gathered along main street on the evening of December 4^th to celebrate the beginning of the Christmas season by watching several marching bands,  antique cars, fire engines and gingerbread-themed floats pass by.  Redeemer Classical School’s was one of the first floats, with a pick-up truck decorated to look like a giant bed full of students dressed in cozy pajamas and night caps.   Trailing along behind was the float – a dreamy candy cane forest surrounding a 10 foot tall gingerbread house full of more Redeemer children dressed in adorable gingerbread man costumes, waving and smiling as they passed.   Older students and parents, including board members Jaye Brumfield and Tim Peters, dressed in chef outfits, walked along beside the float passing out candy, bookmarks and invitations to our upcoming Festival of the Ages, Pioneer Days event being held February 20, 2-5pm (free & open to the public). Add hundreds of Christmas lights and a great mix of Christmas music emanating from the magical forest, and the effect was complete.  One parade-watcher exclaimed to teacher Jane Fowler, “What a wonderful gift to the community!”.   Yeah, that’s what we’re about.

You can see the float in this video one of our parents posted.

Redeemer especially wants to thank Lowe’s for their generous donation of supplies,  Dan Velker of Virginia Cabinetworks, for building a completely re-usable house for us, and KFC for donating buckets for our gumdrops.

Special thanks also goes to the float committee: Jaye Brumfield, Jane Fowler, Kary Phillips, Leslie Fries,  Nicole Haskell and Zoe Hansen; to Megan Kite and Jane Fowler for making costumes; to Jonathan and Larry Brumfield for electrical and set-up help and for driving the float;  to Justin Luebben for the use of his truck and Todd Pitsenberger for the use of his flatbed; to Harrisonburg First Church of the Brethren for letting us assemble the float in their parking lot; to Covenant Presbyterian Church for the use of their music system; to Jay Monger for the power source for our lights; and to Ron Phillips for bringing us pizza on parade night!

Thanks also to all the parents who participated in the parade: Jonathan and Jaye Brumfield, Tim Peters, Jim Fries, Tonya Eppard, Lindy Landes and Kristin Lihos.  And to all our cheerful, smiling students: Jose Elledge, Joshua Storella, Makenna Eppard,  Mariah Stapel, Anna Phillips, Ellie Hansen, Ella and William Peters, Kelly, Colin and Nicole Landes, James and Emma Veerman, Virginia Velker, Josie and Jessie Brumfield, Mikaela and Declan Leach and Annabelle and Audrey Lihos.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 11th, 2009 at 1:26 pm and is filed under Headlines, School News.