Mermaid Candidate for Commissioner!
What a fun weekend! Marshall’s Mermaid Festival was held on Saturday June 6 and the Count on Connie Campaign committee showed up in a big way. Last week, our procurement team ordered and picked up the 6x2 foot Count on Connie banners for the float. Then on Friday late in the afternoon a Rotary friend delivered the aluminum 5x8 foot trailer which was borrowed by another Rotary friend. A Marshall friend let us use his covered space in Downtown Marshall to decorate the float. Between 4 and 6:30pm a flurry of activity took place with 12 people – some members of the campaign committee and some Marshall friends – to create a super fun and absolutely perfect float for the Mermaid Parade.
The parade lined up on the island with much anticipation and energy. The Count on Connie float had friends in the back of the pick-up truck and on the float with bubbles, and then several friends walking along with the float handing out emery boards and Connie buttons. Along the parade route as friends saw our float, they starting chanting: CO-NNIE, CO-NNIE which was super fun (albeit a bit embarrassing when it first started) to hear.
A couple of thoughts to share: I’ve been participating in Marshall’s Mermaid Parade and Festival almost since the beginning. Over the years I’ve been a mermaid, a pirate, and a sea creature. It has always been fun to let my costumes come together without spending any money and to come together at the last minute (which drives my husband crazy!).
This year my costume was made of about 140 little purple pouches hand-sewed to look like scales onto a prior year mermaid costume. These pouches – Crown Royal Mini Bottle pouches - came from cleaning out my brother’s stuff. Tommy was a hoarder and while I’ll never know why he had 300 Crown Royal Mini Bottle pouches, I immediately thought of mermaid scales when I saw them. I really don’t like to sew so this became a pretty big task but I had this vision…..
This year’s participating in the Mermaid Parade was extra special because of the amazing amount of work from friends and campaign committee members. Thank you to the following wonderful folks who made this year super fun:
Justine Brown
Greg Dillingham
Mike Foster
Susan from Virginia
Theresa Gang
Korey Hampton
Kathleen Kraynick
Ron Kraynick
Judy Major
Jaana Mattson
David McClurkin
Ed McNally
Rick Molland
Sean Murphy
Tom Panek
Victoria Phillips
Frank Sabatino
Debbie Sabatino
Gary Webb
Becky Webb
See you June 13 in Hot Springs at the Bluff Mountain Festival! (no float, no mermaid costume……).