The weather conditions may be perfect and there certainly is lots of snow, but the key to the annual Rimbey Cutter Parade, a popular event here for 22 years, is missing.
Tyke Tataryn, president of the Rimbey Sleigh, Wagon and Saddle Club said there simply are not enough volunteers this year to move the event forward.
“We’re really a small club and we had trouble getting enough volunteers to do come forward. We decided if we couldn’t do it properly and safely we wouldn’t do it.”
The ongoing construction on the Agrim Centre may have caused some disruption in setting up the parade route, as well, he said.
Tataryn said the decision to cancel the cutter parade for this year has nothing to do with participation.
“We always had a big enough parade and lots of participation. One year we had 40 sleighs.”
He said participants came from all over Alberta including such points as Calgary, Barrhead, Rocky Mountain House, Stettler and Wetaskiwin.
The ever popular cutter parade could be a go next year if enough volunteers step forward to make it happen.
Bill Nesbitt, Sharon and Ralph Armstrong, Shirley King and Jackie Anderson were among those who organized the first cutter parade held Feb. 20, 1993. The late Thelma Purdy, Adeline Nesbitt and Dave King were also part of the original group.
Musical entertainment and a silent auction with proceeds to go to a charity, donkey rides and rides in carts pulled by miniature horses in the indoor corral have been part of the cutter parade in the past.