The Vance County Arts Council is pulling out all the stops as the holiday season approaches. This umbrella organization has its fingers in a lot of pies this time of year, from wreath-making workshops with senior adults to free concerts and organizing the annual Henderson Christmas parade.
And Alice Sallins is up for the challenge. She spoke with John C. Rose on Monday’s TownTalk to provide an update on all the upcoming festivities.
There’s a free community concert that will take place on Nov. 26 at 4 p.m. at McGregor Hall. The “Tidings of Comfort and Joy” musical event will include local musicians like Jimmy Barrier and the Sound Barriers, Ben Lawrence and Orlando Owens, just to name a few.
“It’s going to be an awesome show,” Sallins said. “We want it to be a good show and free to the community,” she said, adding that it will include secular and sacred music. Visit www.vanceartscouncil.com to read more.
The Christmas parade will take place next weekend, but Sallins said she really needs to have the applications by Friday, Nov. 25. It’s ok if folks drop their applications in the mail by Friday, because that means she should get them Monday. There’s a quick turnaround time for letting participants know their order in the parade lineup by Tuesday.
Click on https://vanceartscouncil.com/event/henderson-nc-christmas-parade-2022/ to find the entry form.
“Each year, it seems like the citizens go out of their way to have a bigger and better parade,” she said, adding that there will be some new faces and groups in this year’s lineup.
“Every year, our goal is to make it a little bigger and a little better.”
The parade is really shaping up, Sallins said. “So far I have 60 forms,” she noted, but expects to have at least 120 entries by parade time, which is Saturday, Dec. 3, beginning at 3 p.m.
“Last year the parade was beautiful and colorful – there were a lot of original floats and professional floats,” she said.
Triange Floats is sending “a bunch of floats” this year – at least eight more than last year, Sallins said.
Vance County Schools has 27 entries, she said. Marching bands, fire departments and military entities all enter for free. The parade proceeds help fund arts council programs.
Some of those programs include six fall and winter wreath-making workshops. Upcoming workshops the senior center are on Dec. 13 and Dec. 15, she said.
The arts council gave distributed craft kits to youngsters and arts council representatives will visit area schools to do arts and crafts activities with students as well.
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