For anyone out there who would like to be in this year’s Valleywide Christmas Parade but has yet to register your business, school, civic club or community group, there’s still time to do so. Applications are available at city halls in West Point, Lanett and Valley as well as Valley Community Center. The deadline to submit an application is 5 p.m. on Monday, December 4, Completed forms and entry fees are being accepted at the Community Center, which is located at 130 Sportsplex Drive, Valley.

The parade will start at 6 p.m. EST on Thursday, December 7th in Lanett and proceed through downtown West Point to Valley, ending in the parking lot at Valley Walmart.

This year’s grand marshal is Cecil Ramsey, who has done some great community service by roofing each one of the 38 Chattahoochee Fuller Center Project (CFCP) homes that have been built in the local area since 2007.

“Please join us as we provide the Greater Valley Area with a wonderful parade to start the season,” said Valley Parks and Recreation Director Laurie Blount, who’s also a member of the Valleywide Christmas Parade Committee. “Each year, this parade gives back to the community through donations to the Christian Service Center, the Interfaith Food Closet in Valley and the West Point Food Closet,”

There’s an entry fee of $35, which is lowered to $30 with the contribution of five canned food items per vehicle or float. It’s $10 per motorcycle or horse rider with the donation of a canned good. The food items will be donated to local food closets for the purpose of being distributed to the needy during the Christmas season. Checks are payable to: Tri-County Community  Association, Inc.

First, second and third-place trophies will be given to the best entries in the business, community and school division.  The community division includes both churches  and civic clubs.

The parade will follow the same route it has followed in recent years. Lining up will be taking place in the parking lot between Bluffton Funeral Services and the Cherry Valley Shopping Center in Lanett. The overflow entries will line up in front of Piggly Wiggly.

Participants are asked to check in with a Parade Committee member as they enter the parade line-up area.

The staging lot for horses will be in the vacant lot behind Valley Auto Sales, located on Cherry Drive. The horses will enter the parade at the intersection of Cherry Drive and Highway 29, just in front of the Santa Claus float. Horse riders are encouraged to have diapers on their horses while on the parade route, Those who don’t have diapers for their horses are being asked to have “pooper scoopers”with them.

Judging the entries will start at 4:30. All homemade floats must be in place by that time and ready for judging, which will be around 5:30. All entries are encouraged to have the name of their sponsor on the right front side of their float. It should be plainly visible for those who are watching the parade.

The parade will be starting out on North 12th Street, just down from The Valley Times-News office,and will turn left onto West 4th Avenue in West Point. The route heads north past the West Point Post Office, the home office for Batson-Cook and Point University’s J. Smith Lanier II Academic Center, where it turns right onto Weet 10th Street. After passing Point University’s Scott Performance Hall, the parade will take another right onto West 3rd Avenue and head through the main portion of the downtown business district in West Point.

West 3rd turns into Highway 29 at the intersection of West 7th Street. The parade will continue heading south along this route and crosses the state line into Lanett. The route continues along Highway 29 and crosses Highway 29 into Valley, where it continues along past the front of Bradshaw-Chambers County Library and turns right between Capital City Bank and Arby’s and disbands in the parking lot outside Walmart.

Horse trailers must be parked in the Walmart parking lot.

Anyone with questions is asked to contact Valley Community Center at (334) 756-5280.