By John Vargas
As the Christmas season gets closer once again, it was time to start off the season with the annual Candy Cane Lane Parade. El Diamante was well represented across the board with FFA, band, cheer and dance participating in the parade.
The Visalia tradition always takes place the Monday after Thanksgiving and starts at 6:30pm. This past Monday, November 27 it was held for the 77th time. This year’s theme for the Parade is “Christmas Around The World”. This tradition is always a great start to Visalia families’ winter season. The Candy Cane Lane Parade is a huge part of Visalia’s history, missing just one year in 2020 due to COVID-19.
Since this parade has been happening for so long, this event is now multigenerational. People who have been coming to the parade since they were kids now bring their kids or even grandkids to continue their holiday tradition.
Senior Anissa Martinez said “I’ve been going to the parade ever since I was a little girl and it’s been a tradition for me and my family ever since we moved to Visalia.”
The El Diamante High School band has been a part of the parade from its beginning and has always been a hit with its amazing marching band and outstanding color guard.
Senior Annabelle Navarro said, “I’ve always loved going to the parade to see the bands and now that I have friends that are in it, it just makes it a million times better.”
Not only did the El Diamante High School marching band attend the parade but so did our Cheer team, our In-Motion dance team, and our FFA students.
Once again the Candy Cane Lane parade was an amazing hit for the 77th time and the Miners shone bright to the start of the holiday season.
This was a really good story! I like how you interviewed different people who did different things in the parade. I also liked how you gave a lot of background on the tradition of the Candy Cane Lane parade ! – Sophia Rexhepi
Hi, I’m Beth Musto from the Redwood Gigantea and I love how you added pictures to the story and how you told us about how El Diamante had its part in the parade!