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For the second year in a row, Susan and I were asked to serve as float judges at our town’s annual Czech Day Festival, which takes place the first October of every year. Once again our friend and former classmate Jaime Olvera organized the annual parade, and both Susan and I were thrilled to take our spots again on stage sitting at the judges’ table. All of the Czech royalty attending the parade wear the fanciest of outfits, and Susan and I felt a little out of place last year in our normal street wear. For this year’s parade, Susan came up with some outfits for us to wear. Susan, with her festive dress and floral headpiece, could have blended in with many of the Czech women attending the parade. I, with my white shirt, red vest, red bow tie and top hat looked like a cross between a festive judge and a cheap magician. To be fair, neither of us are native Czechs, and our outfits were the equivalent of wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day. On Czech Festival Day in Yukon, everybody’s a little bit Czech! As kids, both Susan and I participated in the parade. One year when I was in elementary school, Jaime and I were on the same soccer team and the two of us walked through the parade together. It’s super fun to be sitting on the stage of honor in the middle of Main Street decades later helping with the parade with Jaime organizing the parade. While waiting for the parade to begin, some of our friends and family stopped by the stage to greet us and take pictures. Along with our outfits, Susan both made and purchased some items to decorate the otherwise rather industrial-looking stage. I don’t know what she plans to do next year to top this year, but I’m sure she’ll try. Once again we were joined on stage by Wendy and Dan from Fox-25 who officiated the parade and announced every float as it passed by. They are a lot of fun to hang around with and it is amazing to watch professional broadcasters be able to turn their public personas on and off. Their stage banter had us laughing throughout the parade. There were so many great floats this year and judging them was a difficult task because it’s all subjective. Each of the three judges independently scored each float, picked their top three from each category, and then those were somehow sorted into 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in three different categories for a total of nine winners. Some floats got points for enthusiasm and some got points for presentation. I don’t know exactly what the other two judges (Susan and Jaime’s mom, Gloria) used for their own criteria, but I suspect it was something similar as at the end of the parade our lists looked pretty similar. Not all floats requested to be a part of the competition which was unfortunate as some of the best ones did not appear on our judging cards! I think they are talking about having all floats entered by default next year which will make our jobs more difficult but more fun, too. By the time the parade ended the food trucks and midway were in full effect. We didn’t spend any time riding rides this year, but we did drive by and it looked like everyone was having a great time. Due to a scheduling conflict there were no rides at last year’s parade, and you could tell by the amount of people lining up for rides this year that they were missed. Late into the evening I heard some rumblings on Facebook that some people were disappointed with this year’s kolaches, one of the delicious treats available each year at the festival. I saw a few complaints that they sold out early and that the prices had slightly gone up. While we weren’t involved in preparing kolaches, I know Jaime and his family were. Over the past several months, Jaime and a dozen volunteers (maybe less) spent a couple of evenings each week preparing nearly 30,000 kolaches for the event. Each year they ask for volunteers to come help bake kolaches, and in a town of nearly 30,000 people, about 10 show up. One thing I’ve learned both through the Czech Festival and directly from Susan is that events “don’t just happen” — people make them them. I wish people were as quick to pitch in and volunteer as they were to post snarky comments on Facebook. As for Susan and I, we had an absolute blast doing our little part to help with the parade and are already looking forward to next year’s! Vitame Vas! Similar Posts:
There were so many great floats this year and judging them was a difficult task because it’s all subjective. Each of the three judges independently scored each float, picked their top three from each category, and then those were somehow sorted into 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in three different categories for a total of nine winners. Some floats got points for enthusiasm and some got points for presentation. I don’t know exactly what the other two judges (Susan and Jaime’s mom, Gloria) used for their own criteria, but I suspect it was something similar as at the end of the parade our lists looked pretty similar. Not all floats requested to be a part of the competition which was unfortunate as some of the best ones did not appear on our judging cards! I think they are talking about having all floats entered by default next year which will make our jobs more difficult but more fun, too. By the time the parade ended the food trucks and midway were in full effect. We didn’t spend any time riding rides this year, but we did drive by and it looked like everyone was having a great time. Due to a scheduling conflict there were no rides at last year’s parade, and you could tell by the amount of people lining up for rides this year that they were missed. 
Late into the evening I heard some rumblings on Facebook that some people were disappointed with this year’s kolaches, one of the delicious treats available each year at the festival. I saw a few complaints that they sold out early and that the prices had slightly gone up. While we weren’t involved in preparing kolaches, I know Jaime and his family were. Over the past several months, Jaime and a dozen volunteers (maybe less) spent a couple of evenings each week preparing nearly 30,000 kolaches for the event. Each year they ask for volunteers to come help bake kolaches, and in a town of nearly 30,000 people, about 10 show up. One thing I’ve learned both through the Czech Festival and directly from Susan is that events “don’t just happen” — people make them them. I wish people were as quick to pitch in and volunteer as they were to post snarky comments on Facebook. As for Susan and I, we had an absolute blast doing our little part to help with the parade and are already looking forward to next year’s! Vitame Vas! Similar Posts: 