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The Parrish Heritage Parade, Festival, and Chili Cook-Off has something for the whole family, such as obtaining your photograph taken like a chili pepper.
From CARL MARIO NUDI
What could be better compared to a hometown parade?
A hometown parade followed by a community festival would be nice.
That was after viewing the Parrish Heritage Day Parade roughly a decade 19, what Parrish resident Tami Vaughan believed.
“The parade would go as far as the Y and everyone would go home,” Vaughan explained. “I mentioned we should do something after the parade ends and they said, ‘It’s your idea, and you are accountable for”’.
Ever since then, the annual Heritage Day Parade, Festival and Chili Cook-Off has become a celebration of community pride and will be on Saturday, March 3, this season.
The parade will kickoff at 10:30 a.m. starting supporting the Parrish Fire Station, 12132 U.S. 301 Hwy. N., and progress up 121st Avenue to the festival and chili cook-off event place, which starts at 11 a.m., at the Florida Railroad Museum, 12210 83rd St. E.
In the festival’s beginning, Vaughan was chair of the coordinating committee.
“This was a small festival afterward,” she explained. “About 1,500 people attended mostly sailors.
“We had kids’s actions, a live band plus some food vendors,” Vaughan explained.
Then seven decades ago, Ben Jordan, a neighborhood activist, was speaking about his brother from North regarding the festival, and his brother said noodle cook-offs were popular in his place, Vaughan explained.
“We decided to have throughout the festival,” she explained. “It had been very popular, and every year it has gotten larger.”
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The Chili Cook-Off has come to be a very common event at the Parrish Heritage Festival. This past year, crowds lined up to flavor chili concoctions from 26 teams.
The very first year had approximately 20 teams with roughly 3,000 people attending the festival.
Last year had 26 teams with over 6,000 people attending.
“We also made it an event for the whole Manatee County neighborhood,” explained Mike Williamson, who’s in charge of coordinating the chili cook-off teams.
“This is really about the neighborhood,” said Williamson, the security and training officer for the Parrish Fire District.
It had been community spirit that moved Jennifer Hamey to join the committee arranging the festival.
“I had been at the chili cook-off last year and the vibe was very good,” explained Hamey, an lawyer who had recently moved to Parrish.
“I moved here because I enjoy the neighborhood,” she explained. “It’s much like the neighborhood of Stow, Ohio, where I had an office before going to Florida.
“The people are very favorable,” Hamey said.
It was her fist working on the committee, and also she had been assisting Williamson with the chili cook-off responsibilities.
“I joined the committee to meet folks,” Hamey explained, “and they included me in the process right away.”
Community spirit and pride will be on display during the festival and parade.
The Grand Marshal for the parade, which is a neighborhood tradition for over 30 decades, would be Teresa Giles, together with her mother has possessed PJs Subs, 12342 U.S. 301, for 30 decades.
Giles, ” according to a press release, “always has a friendly word for the clients and also is known to return to the Parrish community frequently supporting families in need.”
Anyone wanting to participate in the parade with a float, classic car or favorite farm animal, could just show up supporting the Parrish Fire Station, 12132 U.S. 301 N., at 9:30 a.m.
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Chili Cook-Off teams start as early as 6:30 a.m. on the afternoon of their Parrish Heritage Festival to begin cooking their special recipes.
Besides the very popular chili cook-off, the festival contains displays and activities for the whole family.
There’ll be food vendors, a beer and wine station, a children’s area with a petting zoo, pony rides and plenty of other fun activities, train rides and a unique region to highlight Parrish Pioneering Heritage.
Pearl McCraw, who’s in charge of coordinating the pioneer place at the festival, said that there will likely be local artists, woodworking craftspeople, vendors selling antiques, candles, and soaps, and demonstrations on quilting and spinning wheel operation, and lots of other history-related phenomena.
Additionally, there will be scheduled readings from Parrish writer Ira Worth McClain in the book, This Old House.
The book is a set of posts on older Parrish inhabitants and homes she composed for the Parrish Village News.
Seeing the early Parrish pioneer region is valuable to the festivalgoers since “when they do not know their legacy they won’t know their future,” McCraw said.
Another popular region of the festival is the vendor stalls.
Local companies and nonprofit groups will probably be giving out of gifts and information about their organizations.
Keeping things lively and entertaining will be the bands reserved for day-long entertainment.
There’ll be five groups and individual actors, such as neighborhood musicians Tom Bush, who is playing at the festival for the first time, also Kim Betts and the Gamble Creek Band.
Additionally on the playbill have been JD Lewis and Zetha, the Jake Castro Band and Rosewood Creek.
Each of the job Vaughan and her committee of volunteers put into coordinating the parade, chili cook-off and festival have paid through the years.
“We have raised thousands of dollars to its Parrish Foundation, which provides grants to local nonprofits,” Vaughan explained.
“In the previous six decades almost $180,000 in grants have been given in Parrish,” Ben Jordan of their Parrish Foundation has been quoted as saying in the media release.
“In 2017 grants at $40,000 were given to 19 organizations,” Jordan said.
The chili cook-off is the big attraction and fundraiser of the festival, Vaughan said.
“Local groups are very interested in engaging from the chili cook-off,” she explained. “People are anxious to sign up annually.”
Teams begin showing up at 6 a.m. to start preparing their chili, and when the festival gates open at 11, people are lined up on samples.
There are cash prizes of $500 for your Grand Champion, $300 for initial runner-up, and $200 for next runner-up.
A panel of judges consisting of local celebrities picks the winners via a blind-tasting process.
There is a Spirit Award to the group that has the most enjoyable, the Showmanship Award to the group that sports the finest overall look, and a Fundraising Award to the group which sells the most tickets.
Along with also the coveted People’s Choice Award, where festival attendees pick their best choice of the best chili, has ever been popular.
Folks use their admission tickets to vote for their preferred by putting it in a container at the group booth.
Tickets are available in advance for $8, and at the gate the day of the festival for about $ 10. Children under the age of 12 are free.
There’ll be plenty of free parking.
“People have to visit the Parrish parade, festival, and chili cook-off since it’s something for families to do together with the kids,” said Vaughan, “and you also help raise money for the community”
For more information regarding the festival, email Vaughan at FrstWordDr@gmail.com.
Or see the festival Facebook site at or Online at .
