And the best 2008 Norwood Day Parade float is…

Wait a minute, we can’t get the envelope open…oh, here we go. Winning the $500 First Place prize is the “Thank you, Norwood - Burwood Pool is the Best Gift Ever” entry by the Norwood Pool parents. Taking the $250 Second Place prize is the New Haven Baptist Church float, and we apologize for not having the name of their entry available. Congratulations to both for creating such spectacular floats for everyone to enjoy! Other top awards went to Liberty Tax Service, Norwood Indians Football League, Star Strutters Baton Twirlers, and an entry from Hamilton County that we’ll try to fill in later. And we’d like to give a prize to Jane Grote and Donna Laake for Best Female Norwood Day Parade Emcee’s. They were outstanding under pressure and shared interesting tidbits throughout the parade, not the least of which was Donna’s announcement that the City now has 7 automatic external defibrillators (AED’s), funded by a grant from Carl Lindner. And many thanks to Norwood Community Television for bringing the parade live to those of us who couldn’t be there in person.


1:30 p.m. ADDENDUM: We just received an email from Melinda Johnson with the Norwood Chamber of Commerce filling in the missing information above. The name of the New Haven Baptist Church float was “The ‘Cross’ is the Gateway to our Future.” The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Pipe & Drum Corps also received recognition with a special award. Thank you, Melinda, and thanks to everyone at the Chamber of Commerce for making the Norwood Day Parade happen each year. It just gets better and better.

7/24/08 UPDATE: Click here to see photos of the winning float at the Burwood Pool website.