60th Annual Maynard Holiday Parade

Team Hongshi will be participating in the 60th Annual Maynard Holiday Parade!

Parade staging is 12:30pm at the Mill parking lot, which can be entered from Sudbury Street. Parade kicks off at 2pm.

STAYING COOL & HYDRATED

Despite the cold weather, we’ll still take steps to stay cool and hydrated.

For Lion Dancers:

No one will stay in the lions for more than 10 minutes. When I play the drumbeat we have practiced, that will be the cue for the current lions to take a break. I don’t want lion dancers to rotate through the line; I want the lion dancers to take a break for a minimum of ten minutes. When you hear the drumbeat, just step out of the costume and hand it off to the second team.

Heads, remember to keep the lion heads UP for as much time as possible. As soon as you step out of the lion, get water, and simply walk in the parade as you drink. Our “water benders” will be available to help you with this.

For Water Benders:

These are our parade participants who are NOT in the lions.

All participants should keep an eye on the lions and the standard bearers to make sure they are holding up and give them a chance to rotate out if necessary. If the lions need a break, the dancers will take the costumes off to signify that they’re tapping out.

Two people will be carrying our school banner. Standard bearers may also switch out as needed; just communicate with each other.

Everyone else should be doing 1 of 2 things:

• Guiding the lions to make sure that they don’t get ahead of the truck, fall too far behind, or drift too far from the parade path.

• Watching the lion dancers and standard bearers to make sure they are not showing signs of exhaustion or heat stroke; including (but not limited to) nausea, flushed skin, either dry skin or excessive sweating, rapid breathing, headache, or altered behavior such as slurred speech or stumbling.

Water bottles, spray bottles, and cold washcloths will be in coolers in the bed of the truck, where I will be drumming. The truck will drive in front of our portion of the parade. The standard bearers will walk in front of the the truck.

PARADE LOGISTICS

Lion Dance Team should arrive at the Mill Parking lot at 12:30pm.

Lion Dancers should wear their lion dance uniforms. (These are cooler than our regular uniforms, both temperature-wise and also stylistically!) All other participants should wear school uniforms; pants, sashes, black or gold school t-shirt. Training shoes aren’t necessary.

If anyone else would like to volunteer to help keep our lion dancers hydrated, hold signs, or just walk in the parade, email me at sihing.eliot@metrowestkungfu.com. See you there!

~ Shifu