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Tis the season for turkey, stuffing and the 72nd Annual Sun Bowl Parade, sponsored by First Light Federal Credit Union.
Held annually on Thanksgiving day, this year's parade theme is "El Paso Pride," and will begin at 10 a.m. on Montana Avenue and Ochoa Street and will end at Copia Street.
This year's parade will mark one of the largest El Paso has ever had.
"It's huge! It doubled from last year. We went from having an average of about 10 floats per year for probably the last 15 to years to 21 floats this year," said Joe Daubach, special events coordinator for the El Paso Sun Bowl Association.
The parade attendance averages about 250,000 people every year, depending on the weather, said Daubach. This year he expects at least 100,000.
"We were freezing our butts off last year," said Dorothy Baca, public safety and community developer for the El Paso Electric Company.
Former NFL player/Andress High School graduate Ray Mickens has been chosen as this year's grand marshall. An El Paso native, Mickens was drafted by the New York Jets in 1996, played for the Cleveland Browns and the New England Patriots.
The El Paso Electric Company will debut a 12-foot helium-filled basketball with the words "Remembering the Bear" to honor UTEP basketball coach Don Haskins, who passed away earlier this year.
"We're doing a tribute to The Bear. All of our shirts have his picture on the front, and on the back will be the Texas Western logo. It seemed like the right thing to do since we just lost him (Haskins)," Baca said.
The 1966 Texas Western Champions will have their own float in the parade, courtesy of the Crystal Blue Unicorns, a local dance troupe. Ray Vasquez oversaw the construction of this float, he has been building floats for the Sun Bowl Parade for the past 10 years.
"One of the first things that came to my mind was the UTEP champs and Don Haskins. I know some of the guys (Texas Western 1966 Team) personally. I used to work with Bobby Joe Hill at Casa Ford," Vasquez said.
Daubach said part of the reason for the increase in the amount of floats in this year's parade is due to the fact that materials needed to build the additional floats were donated.
Among the companies that donated float-building materials are Home Depot, El Paso Machine and Steel and Banes General Contractors.
"We were trying to help float builders because there are several non-profit organizations that build floats that don't have a lot of money," Daubach said. "A lot of companies jumped on board. Banes was the first one and the word got out. It's really snowballing."
For the past three years the food drive organized by First Light Federal Credit Union, the Sun Bowl Association and the West Texas Food Bank has proven to be a success. This year, the company that donated the greatest amount of food won their own float in this year's parade. The victor was ADP Security and the Sun Bowl Association is building them their own float.
"The food drive generated about 55,000 pounds of food last year," Daubach said. "Although we don't have a total for this year yet, we estimate about 75,000 pounds for this year now that we added the float aspect of it."
Staples of any parade are high school bands. Among those who will be marching to the beat of their own music will be the Bowie High School Band, the Santa Teresa High School Marching Band and the Gadsden High School Marching Band.
UTEP's Golddiggers, the Flag Corps and the Marching Miner Band will also be present at the Sun Bowl Parade, along with the world famous Budweiser Clydesdale horses, followed by the official Keep El Paso Beautiful pooper scoopers.
A limited number of review stand seats are for sale at all local Circle K stores for $5. For more information call 533-4116.
Kandice N. Diaz may be reached at prospector@utep.edu.
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