The Austin Chamber of Commerce hosts its 20th Annual Christmas Tree Lighting and Parade Friday.
The parade steps off at 5 p.m. from Madison Street and Laramie Avenue, and will head west on Madison with floats, bands, cars carrying local politicians and other parade participants. It will end at the 15th District Police Station at 5701 W. Madison St. The tree lighting is scheduled for 6 pm.
“Once the parade ends at the police station, the parking lot adjacent to the police station, east of the building, there’s going to be a Santa’s Village set up, a stage for performances and guest speakers, food vendors…all the food is free to the attendees,” Austin Chamber of Commerce President, Crystal Dyer told the Austin Weekly News. “We’ll also have a Santa Claus and they’ll be passing out free toys to all the youth.”
The event will take place despite the challenges the organization faced in preparing for this year’s event.
“The original inception of the tree lighting and parade was to liven up the community so that the business community and the police department were working in sync to help bring joy and safety to the community,” Dyer said.
The executive director who organized and planned the event in the past left, but Dyer and the chamber’s board of directors stepped up to help. The group also received funding and other support from Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, Chicago 37th Ward Ald. Emma Mitts and other community partners.
“We’ve been planning the event since Oct. but this year, we don’t have an active executive director,” Dyer explained. “We’re in an executive director search so the board of directors actually planned the parade this year. We’ve [the board] never done this before.”
Dyer lauded the help she received from Mitts and the mayor, community partners such as Morris Reed, executive director of the Westside Health Authority’s Good Neighbor Campaign, and Choose Chicago, the official destination marketing organization and convention bureau for the city.
“They actually pulled this off for us,” Dyer said. “They got all the toys for the kids. Good Neighbors loaned us their manpower and their director of marketing did the fliers for us.”
Johnson’s office provided funding through the City of Chicago Road to Recovery Plan.
In 2021, the City of Chicago was allocated $1.887 billion in ARPA State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funding for public health and economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to information provided on the mayor’s office website.
The City then developed a plan designed to drive “transformational change” by allocating funds across essential city services and 50 community initiatives.
“The Road to Recovery money actually paid for all those food vendors that will provide the food for the event,” Dyer said. “So, no one is selling anything. Everything at the event is no charge for the community.”
Johnson is expected to attend or walk in the parade. Mitts will ride in a car during the procession.
Mitts has been involved with the parade and tree lighting over the years.
“It’s our way of kicking off Christmas in the Austin community,” said Mitts, who donated 100 pallets of toys for the event.
Mitts said she heard the chamber executive director was no longer there and that the organization is operating with an interim until the position is filled.
“I decided to get in there and help out in any way I could,” Mitts said about helping to make sure the event took place. “This is not about a ‘me,’ or ‘I.’ This is about us and we have to get this right because it sends a message that we can’t get anything together [if we don’t see this through].”
Mitts was the one who contacted Johnson to ask him for help.
“They jumped on it and I thanked them for it,” Mitts said.
Mitts also took care of several issues, including arranging for Santa Claus to appear.
“I just don’t want to see our tradition go down to waste,” Mitts said. “I want them to see that no one person stops anything and we will continue to move forward. I believe we should say ‘I can’ before we go with ‘I can’t.’”
During the parade, a 40-passenger Christmas trolley will be available so that any families or organizations who do not have a vehicle can ride on it.
A photographer with a photo booth will be on hand to take each child’s photo with their toy. That photo will then be emailed to their parents’ cell phones, Dyer added.