Cathy Wentz

CEDAR CITY – The Storybook Cavalcade Parade, which had to be canceled last year because of an early snowstorm, had a warm, beautiful day this year to send a variety of beloved children’s story characters down Main Street for an audience of enthusiastic children and grownups Saturday afternoon.

As children and their parents waited for the parade to start, a helicopter carrying Santa Claus flew over Main Street.

The parade itself, which traditionally ushers in the holiday season in Cedar City, included characters from many childhood stories such as “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” and “Where the Wild Things Are.”

The Grand Marshals for the parade this year were Elsa and Anna from the Walt Disney movie “Frozen.”

Ten-year-old Trinity Hall from Milford watched the parade for the first time with her parents.

Steve Hall, Trinity’s father, said they found out about the parade “by accident.”

He said the family comes to Cedar City from Milford once weekly to do their shopping because there are no big stores in Milford.

They were eating lunch and noticed a large group of people assembling along Main Street so they decided to stay and watch the parade.

“It’s amazing how big it is too because we come from a small town in Texas, and they don’t have parades like this,” he said, noting that the family had just moved from Texas to Milford a couple of months ago.

The family has been loving the area since they moved, he said.

Trinity said her favorite parade characters were Anna and Elsa because she likes “Frozen.”

One group of students from Southern Utah University dressed as animals in the Rainbow Zoo from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Megan Culler said the group represented a Young Single Adults ward in the local The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Kenzie Messer, an SUU student and granddaughter of parade organizer Joyce Messer, was dressed as a character from “Toy Story.”

Kenzie said her grandmother recruited her to participate in the parade.

“It’s fun to volunteer and help out,” Kenzie said.

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