Lighted Parade, Grand Marshals and Christmas in the Park
The City of Checotah had their first Lighted Christmas Parade with A Christmas Movie theme hosted by the Checotah Chamber of Commerce on Dec. 4. Many locals boasted that it was the best parade Checotah has ever had.
The 45-minute parade had a record number of floats, both commercial and noncommercial, plus several organizations from the Shriners to the DAV to the Boy Scouts to Jeepers and more.
The Checotah PD, Grand Marshals and the Class of Checotah led the parade as so many spectators enjoyed the lighted floats, vehicles, horses, carriages, clowns, cheerleaders, the Grinch and Santa. Of course the children loved all the candy thrown the most.
The City Christmas Tree was donated by Henderson Truss.
Grand Marshals
The Grand Marshals for the parade this year were Mitch and Karen Myers.
Mitch graduated Valedictorian from Checotah High School in 1970. From there he went on to the University of Oklahoma to obtain his degree and practiced dentistry for 38 years.
Mitch has also been the president of Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Lions Club, Main Street, Checotah Education Foun-dation and is part of the Honey Springs Board.
Karen graduated from Checotah High School in 1977 and went on to attend Northeastern State University.
She received her teaching degree and taught school for 36 years at Checotah Public Schools and coached middle school girls’ basketball.
Karen is a member of the BX of PEO, Beta Sigma Phi and the Checotah Landmark Preservation Society.
The Myers grew up in Checotah and married in July of 1987 in the living room of their new house.
They have three children and four grandchildren and have been members of First Baptist Checotah for many years.
They have also been OU season ticket holders for over 50 years.
Christmas in the Park After the parade, the community was invited to join the Chamber of Commerce in Veterans Park for hot cocoa, cookies, special singing, the lighting of the City Christmas Tree and pictures with Santa.
Everyone got a free ticket for a chance to win $250 in Checotah Bucks or Nintendo Switch Lite.
Winners of the four children’s drawings were: Tucker Wells, Blakely McCutchen, Gentry Flud and Michael Walker. They won Nintendo Switch Lites that were sponsored by Peoples National Bank, Armstrong Bank, First Family Federal Credit Union and Checotah Creek Nation Casino.
Winners of the four adult drawings were: Kendal Weder, Terie Goodmiller, Olivia Laipple and Charles Collins. Each won $250 in Checotah Bucks sponsored by the Checotah Chamber of Commerce.
Judges had a challenging time with so many great floats this year but the winners were: 1st place – First Free Will Baptist Church with the Polar Express 2nd place – Trinity Baptist with Gentry Cinema’s show “Coming Soon – Jesus” 3rd place – El Jarocho with The Grinch The float competition was sponsored by Red Dirt Production Services.
Checotah Middle School cheerleaders decorated the best school float and won an Inflatable Shark sponsored by Checotah Tag Agency.
The City Christmas Tree was made and donated by Henderson Truss Inc. this year. The Chamber sold tickets for another donation drawing for the tree that was won by Terry’s Roofing. All proceeds went to benefit the Angel Tree Program and a great time was had by all.
