Raymond set to celebrate Canada Day
By Al Beeber on June 30, 2021.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com After a year of COVID-19 restrictions, the town of Raymond is ready to celebrate again on Canada Day.The town Rotary club will be staging its annual parade Thursday morning at 10 a.m. and mayor Jim Depew says a strong turnout is expected.
The parade is part of the town’s annual Heritage Days which start today and run through Saturday.
Last year, a reverse parade was staged with people driving in their cars past floats parked on Broadway Avenue, the town’s Main Street.
The parade will return to its normal routine Thursday with crowds lining Broadway as floats pass by. Honorary parade marshall this year is Jerry First Charger, a member of the Blood Tribe and family school liaison counsellor with Westwind School Division.
The renowned Raymond Stampede kicks off today at noon with timed events. The Top 10 finishers will move on to the full rodeo perfomance Thursday at 2 p.m.
Other events will run Friday as well as Saturday when the annual Harlan Taylor 5K and 10K road race starts at 7:30 a.m.
While the continued border closure will impact reunions with family members who live in the U.S., Depew said Tuesday he expects good support from Lethbridge where the town has many ties.
“It’s all back to normal,” said Depew.
After Kenney made an announcement in May, organizers began working on staging events for Heritage Days, he said.
“We started plans back in May and we thought we could always revise them but we didn’t have to revise them and we’re going ahead with full plans for our July 1 celebration,” he said.
“We are all excited,” he said. “Everything’s on.”
A full event schedule can be found online at raymondrecreation.ca Follow @albeebHerald on Twitter 4
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