The Cub Scouts of Pack 117 cordially invite your group to participate in their 63rd annual Mardi Gras Parade to be held on Saturday, February 4th. You are asked to be at the formation area, the St. Christopher School Gym Parking Lot on Johnson Street, no later than 9:00am so that we may be ready to roll promptly at 10:00am. The parade route is approximately two and ¼ miles long and ends in the St. Christopher schoolyard. Attached is a copy of the parade route for your information.
The theme of this year's parade is “Louisiana Saturday Night".
The registration cost of this year's parade is $20 per participant with a $5 per person discount for groups with 10 or more. Chaperones do not pay, only participants.
Troop leaders or parents are required to chaperone their own group. As per BSA's insurance policy, all scout leaders are required to be in Class A scout uniforms. Participants can dress according to their theme. Please limit chaperones to one for every scout.
Only participants and the needed number of chaperones are allowed to march. No siblings, no additional parents, and no additional children are allowed. Absolutely no skates, no roller blades, and no baby strollers. No pets are allowed on the route, as they can easily trip a participant or get trapped under a float. Safety is our top priority!
You may elect to pull a wagon to carry throws. Participants cannot ride in floats, wagons, or strollers due to insurance guidelines. Wheelchairs are excluded from this requirement. (Pack 117 insurance covers only Pack 117 scouts to ride in a float). Groups will receive a warning if found to be riding, and if it continues or happens again, the group will be pulled from the parade and will not be eligible to participate in next year's parade. No Exceptions. The parade must keep a steady pace, so all participants are expected to be able to keep up with the parade pace.
Groups: You may build and bring a float not to exceed 4' x 8' in size, which cannot be motorized but should be pushed/pulled by parents. Each group may have one float per 10 participants. Wheels must be under the float; wheels cannot protrude out of the sides of the float for safety reasons. If you are not familiar with the type of floats we use, please email for further information. No children are allowed in the floats. Participants are to provide their own throws.
No motorized vehicles of any kind are allowed in the parade or staging area except for police and emergency escort vehicles. This includes electric carts. All throws must be brought in on wagons, floats, or by hand. This is for the safety of everyone in the staging area and on the parade route.
Each group will be required to supply adult volunteers to monitor your assigned area in St. Christopher’s parking lot, which will entail picking up any litter, fallen beads, food, etc. that your group leaves on the school grounds. The volunteers will need to remain after the scouts have left the parking lot in order to monitor the area. Please encourage your scouts to unpack their boxes of beads at home and not in the parking lot.
In keeping with scouting guidelines, no alcoholic beverages are to be consumed at any time during this event.
Breakfast and Concessions will be sold in the staging area before the parade.
If you are interested in taking part in the 2023 parade please register and pay by Thursday, February 2, 2023. NO payments will be accepted the day of the parade. Groups that have not completed payment by February 2nd WILL be turned away.
