If you knew me, you would know that although I have a very big head, I don’t have an ego to match. Good thing too, because during the festival, I get to share the stage, and the street, with some pretty amazing characters.
Every year, the festival asks some Very Important People to join our daily parade. We call them parade marshals. They don’t really get to “marshal” anybody or boss anybody around, but we are proud to have them come and show their support for our festival and our community. We treat them right too. They get to ride down Mill Street in some pretty impressive cars. Occasionally they get bopped by a puppet, but that is the price you pay to be in the Puppets Up! parade which is, by the way, about as much fun and chaos as a person or puppet can handle in one day.
This year, Puppets Up! welcomes the following parade marshals:
- Mayor Al Lunney (Mayor, Town of Mississippi Mills) Both days
- Jeff Semple (CBC reporter and, guess what, he hails from Almonte!) Both days
- Max Keeping (CTV Ottawa’s Community Ambassador and #1 Festival supporter) Sunday
- Perianne Jones (Local Olympian, cross-country skiing) Both days
- Josie Geuer (Born and raised in Almonte, Josie is the Program Director for Ottawa’s Hot 89.9 radio station) Sunday
- Clive Doucet (Mayoralty candidate for the City of Ottawa) Saturday
- Catherine Clark (Host of Beyond Politics with the Cable Public Affairs Channel (CPAC)), Saturday
- Gordon O’Connor, MP (Carleton-Mississippi Mills), Sunday
- Dr. David Tawei Lee (Taiwan’s Representative to Canada) and his wife Mrs. Lin Chih Lee (Saturday)
Both Max and the Mayor will make you do a double take since they will both have look-alike celebrity puppets riding with them. The puppets were built by none other than Noreen Young!