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(01/23/13 10:10pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>With temperatures in the teens and below, many Bloomington residents are looking forward to warmer temperatures and the chance to get out and enjoy city festivities. This includes an array of parades and festivals. City officials said planning for some of those parades and festivals is already underway. Three parades taking place in the Bloomington area — including the Bloomington Fourth of July parade, the Monroe County Fall Festival in Ellettsville and Harrodsburg Heritage Days Festival — require months of preparation.Bill Ream, community events coordinator for the Bloomington Parks and Recreation department, said in an email the planning process for the Fourth of July Parade begins when the committee selects the theme in late January to early February. After the theme is selected, it’s time to seek sponsors and ensure the technicalities of the event are in motion.“Over the next few months, the committee works on a variety of tasks necessary to hold the parade including securing the sponsors, obtaining all necessary permits, securing the staging lots, hiring security, renting equipment needed and securing the help of the police departments,” Ream said.Monroe County fall festival parade director Anne Howard said she and her committee of volunteers adopted a similar approach. Howard said the committee begins meeting in March and works throughout the year to plan the parade, select a theme, get proper permits and select grand marshals. Because the parade route includes Indiana State Road 46, permissions from the Indiana Department of Transportation also need to be obtained, Howard said. The parade included in the festivities for Harrodsburg Heritage Days required nearly a year of preparation, said chairman of the parade and Clear Creek Township trustee Thelma Kelley Jeffries . The parade requires the closing of Popcorn Road, as well as planning and preparation to organize and number all of the parade entries.Jeffries said the parade has had as many as 150 entries and in previous years has attracted a crowd of about 4,000 people. Jeffries said a state official from Indianapolis once visited the parade and was astonished by what they saw. “They were amazed that a small community could do what we’re doing,” Jeffries said. Keeping order among so many parade entries and participants could get a little hectic, Jeffries said, but that was all part of the process. “We do have some mess-ups, but there was also a mess-up in the Rose Bowl Parade this year so I don’t feel so bad,” Jeffries said In recent years, there has been a decline in participants for the committees for both the Heritage Days and the Fall Festival.“We have lost so many people that were on the founding side of the parade,” Jeffries said. “We need to get more young people involved with the Heritage Days.”Howard said her committee has also experienced a loss in numbers as the members have grown older. “There are maybe six other people besides the officers that put on the festival — they literally do everything,” Howard said. “I’m really afraid that if the younger generation doesn’t step up, this could be no more.”However, even after months of planning, Howard said it was worth it to see the excitement on the faces of the young children in attendance. She also said she hoped to create an unforgettable experience for all who attended the Fall Festival. “You always remember parades,” Howard said. “It’s something that is still innocent in the world.”
(11/26/12 5:02am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Larry Conder owns a T-shirt highlighting the four phases of Santa.Phase one: you believe. Phase two: you don’t. Phase three: you play Santa. Phase four: you look like Santa.For Conder, who prefers to be called “Santa Larry,” these words represent far more than a T-shirt slogan — they represent a lifestyle.Conder served as resident Santa Claus at Bloomington’s Fountain Square Mall for 12 years and spends the whole year in the Santa mindset.“If you want to be Santa, you don’t just throw a suit on and say ‘ho ho ho,’”Conder said.In fact, he spends a great deal of time doing research to prepare for the holiday season because, when children come to visit Santa, they come with questions.“You’ve got to do the research,” he said. “You go in to talk to somebody and a child comes in...their perspective on life is very different.”Conder has had the opportunity to interact with thousands of children throughout the last 20 years and has many stories to share, both surprising and heartwarming.Though Conder said he enjoyed the experience of being Santa, he will not be returning to Fountain Square Mall for the upcoming 2012-13 holiday season.Reasons for the split between Conder and CFC, the company that runs Fountain Square Mall, remain unclear. Conder said the business found a replacement Santa this year and he was never contacted.CFC representatives could not be reached for comment.One thing is for certain: there are families that are unhappy to see Conder go. Most expressed disappointment, while others simply refused to return to Fountain Square in his absence.“My family was very disappointed to find out that Larry was not asked to be Santa again this year,” said Cassie Naugle, a mother who visited Conder at Fountain Square Mall for several years.Naugle said her family was unlikely to return to Fountain Square Mall in the wake of Conder’s departure and that they were hoping to see him in another location.“We will go see Larry if he can set up somewhere else,” Naugle said. “If not, we will be seeing the dreaded mall Santa.”For one family, not visiting Fountain Square Mall to see Conder was not the only way to demonstrate their disapproval. Barb Ooley said her family did not attend the Canopy of Lights event in downtown Bloomington this year in Conder’s absence. “(The lighting ceremony) always meant that the ‘real Santa’ was finally in Bloomington,” Ooley said in an email. “We will not be seeing Santa this year unless the ‘real Santa’ is able to make an appearance somewhere else in the county.”Several families, including the Naugle and Ooley families, were involved in the organization of another project to keep Conder in the red suit.The project was started when Missy Waldon, a longtime friend of the Conder family, heard of his departure from Fountain Square Mall. Waldon said she messaged several of her Facebook friends and the group began to plan a day in which families could continue their tradition of visiting Conder.Now, Conder will suit up once again from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Dec. 22 at the 4-H Building at the Monroe County Fairgrounds. There will be no cost to attend or to have pictures taken, but the group is asking for a donation of $5 for each photo.“Any donations we receive will go to a needy family identified by some teachers or churches in the area,” Waldon said after the initial planning meeting.She said the group plans to support more than one family if enough money is raised.For the families involved in the planning, it is all about allowing more people to interact with Conder, who some families credit as having a large impact on their holiday traditions.“I would just like to thank Larry for all of the care that he put into being Santa,” Naugle said. “It was always such a positive experience and it makes me sad that so many kids won’t get to have the experience of visiting Santa Larry.”There have been many families like Naugle’s come in and out of Fountain Square Mall to visit Santa Larry during the years, each responding to the quintessential Santa question: what do you want for Christmas?He said all he wants is for the perfectionists in the world to stop worrying about the little things during the holiday season and just enjoy the time they have with their families.“Nothing goes perfect,” he said. “It’s why I’ve got to mend the harnesses on the reindeer every year.”
(11/01/12 4:30am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>On Oct. 24, AAA Hoosier Motor Club reported Indiana gas prices dropped nearly 20 cents from Oct. 17-24.This news comes in wake of a national reduction in gas prices that brought down the national average gas prices by an average of 13 cents. According to the report, the only two states that had an increase in average gas prices rather than a decrease were Alaska and Utah. Greg Seiter, public affairs manager for the Hoosier Motor Club, said gas prices could fluxuate in coming months.“If all the variables remain the same and there are no unexpected uprisings in the Middle East, I think there’s still room for a little bit of a fallback between now and Thanksgiving,” Seiter said. “Once we get to the holiday season, I would expect that gas prices will stabilize.”However, Seiter said market unpredictability makes accurate projections difficult.“The market is so volatile and there are so many things that can have an adverse effect,” he said. Another factor that contributed to the price drop is the rerouting of several pipelines in the Midwest, Seiter said. In the past month, pipeline issues arose, necessitating the rerouting of petroleum to the Midwest. This caused an observed spike in gas prices. Freshman Eliot Grubb said he does not generally pay attention to gas prices, and the drop has not saved him much when filling up.“A drop of 20 cents saves me around $2.40 on a fill-up ... not too much difference,” Grubb said. Senior Elena Panteleeva expressed much the same sentiment. Panteleeva said she did not realize the gas prices had dropped until someone told her. She said she hardly ever fills her gas tank because of the expense and because she prefers to know how much she spends on gas each week. “I never fill up because I don’t like paying more than $20 for gas at a time,” she said. She added that filling her tank is never a financial strain but she wasn’t fond of putting too much cash toward gas. “Sometimes I think I spend too much on gas when I could be doing better things with my money,” she said.Gas prices continued to hold through the week following the initial report. According to the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report, average regular gas prices for the state of Indiana on Wednesday remained at $3.382