By: By Simone Joseph, Staff Writer

For an event that almost died, Aurora’s Canada Day parade has made quite a recovery.

This year’s event was a colourful, dancing, musical parade that lasted an hour, event organizer Sher St. Kitts said.

“People were (saying), ‘Oh my God. It is still coming’,” she said.

The parade was held July 1 at 10 a.m. The route ran south on historic Yonge Street from Orchard Heights Drive to The War Memorial at Peace Park just south of Henderson Street.  

The parade included 14 horses and onlookers were nearly all decked out in red and white, Ms St. Kitts said.

Last year’s parade was cancelled because of a volunteer shortage, said Melodie McKay, manager of programs and community development for Aurora’s leisure services department.  

Ms St. Kitts, who was upset by the cancellation of the 2007 parade, uses a particular buzz phrase when talking about Aurora’s Canada Day parade.

She talks about being a “red hot Canadian” or someone who is passionate about being from Canada.

“If Canadians were red hot, this parade wouldn’t have died. It (the cancellation) wouldn’t happen in the United States.

We are not educating our children to be red hot Canadians,” she said.

In the end, she saw just how much spirit Canadians can display for their country.

Of all the floats in this year’s parade, Ms St. Kitts’ favourite was the Safehaven Kids’ float, which won first prize in the Best Red Hot Canadian Wheels category.

The float featured blue balloons lining the children’s wheelchairs to represent water since the theme was beach day.

Safehaven is a non-profit organization that provides housing for children and youth with multiple disabilities.

The float also contained a bubble-making machine.

“These kids had the time of their lives. They (the parents) were ecstatic their children were being honoured,” she said.

Winners in 15 categories will be honoured at the next Aurora council meeting, which will be broadcast on Aurora Cable.

“I want to get the fever going for next year,” Ms St. Kitts said.

 Twenty-five people judged the event, including six Aurora high school students.

The only school that participated this year was Lester B. Pearson Public School.

Ms  St. Kitts hopes to get more schools involved next year and is already booking floats.

“We will be better than ever.

“We will own the title of Canada’s birthday town,” Ms St. Kitts said.  “It is so successful now. It is like a train that will not stop”.