Dallas Children's Health Christmas Parade

[Dark PWF[Staff]]

This troop report is a bit delayed due to some logistics that came into play, but on the 6th of December, a rather large contingent of the Star Garrison (including some members from the now Probationary Diamond Garrison in Arkansas!) gathered to march in Dallas' annual Christmas Parade, sponsored by Dallas Children's Health, a local Children's Hospital.

Part of the delay was in waiting for the broadcast delay to take place in hopes of catching video of the telecast as there was sure to be some beautiful footage taken by the boom camera over the street in downtown Dallas that morning. Alas, the broadcast powers that be had to condense a two hour parade into a one hour television block, and so the parade as viewed on television did not include anything that could be considered "non-traditional" in regards to Christmas. As a result, there were no World Famous Wheelieing Elvis', no marching llamas, and there were no Rebel Legion, no Mando Mercs, and no 501st on the television broadcast.

Seriously, even though we were there, I thought the llamas were the coolest thing in the parade. But, I'm fascinated by llamas.

On the upside as mentioned, we had a very large footprint in the parade, we also wound up doing a left side of the street vs the right side of the street cheering contest every time we stopped, because we were asked to stay in the parade line of march and not do anything that would delay the parade's movement - which stopped us from wandering over to the sidelines (as TKs are wont to do when left with no specific direction or guidance) to interact with the kids/spectators.

Prior to our march beginning, we had a handful of troopers up at the parade's viewing area interacting with the crowd and imitating the marchers in the parade as they passed. It included a lot of "musical instrument" playing, and "baton twirling" using our weapons of the day - candy canes in place of the items. We did a lot of princess waving, and naturally took a lot of pictures with the crowd.

When all was said and done, we had more than one spectator approach us after the parade while walking to our lunch spot du jour, to thank us for being a part of the parade and being generally awesome while letting us know that we received (in their personal opinions) louder cheers than Santa Claus himself.

Enough of my rambling... On to the imagery, provided by Erin Victor - TB-4610, Vivid Disaster Studios, and helmet cam footage taken by our own TrooperTim - TK-3121.

Here is the best "street-level" footage that I've found so far:

 

----------

Edited July 19, 2021 by gmrhodes13
link not working removed

[T-Jay[TK]]

Hey Tim, looks like a very nice troop there! And yes, at 6:40 the crowd is definitely getting louder.    But the rest of the parade is also worth viewing.

 

Never saw such blasters. Tasty...

 

And that awesome helmet cam really gives an impression, how it must feel to be trooping. Great idea and a nice perspective.

[Snaps[TK]]

Great video's Tim! Thanks for sharing

[Dark PWF[Staff]]

:::Shamefully shuffles in:::  

 

Thanks guys!!! 

I will get the photos posted.  

 

I've been using my iPad far more than my laptop at the house, and that kills my posting, based on both ease and the location of the photos (not on the iPad).

 

Must make the time to make it happen!

[Polar]

awesome! 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Nice work Tim

[TrainWreck[501st]]

That was a fun troop!

[Veeds[TK]]

Thanks for sharing. I love the pov camera. make me excited to get to my first troop. I'm about 40% done on my armor.

[Dark PWF[Staff]]

Yes indeed, Sean.  Tim's (TrooperTim) helmet cam is a pretty awesome setup.  I'd be interested in hooking one up myself, but I don't believe that I'd be able to get my bucket on my head any longer if I did.  LoL

Photos added!  I still have more that have to be downloaded and transferred over to photobucket for sharing, so if I get to those ones, I'll share them too.  I'm stalled out because I'm trying to get a video shared, but it isn't in a sharable location that I can find.  The video features TK-89763 jumping rope in armor.  It is an amazing display of agility and is really something that everyone should see.  I just have to figure out how to get it and share it here!

[Captain_Wordo[TK]]

Pretty cool, thanks for sharing!