The Klamath River Veterans led the parade Sunday for 45th Annual Bigfoot Jamboree in Happy Camp. Tom White on horseback carried a flag. Members of the Klamath River Veterans walked with flags, memorial flags folded properly. A black truck came with candy throwing for the kids along the parade route. Then came the Vet Center vehicle which is in Happy Camp with Tim Grenvik monthly to provide services for the Veterans. It was a wonderful parade!

The Elk Creek Campground outdid themselves this year with Undersea Wonderland! Wonderland was the theme of the parade and as usual it was carried out in many variations by the participants. Elk Creek won the Grand prize for best of all entries, quite deservedly! Klamath River Veterans won 1st place Individual categories. A perky little girl, Kayla Whitehouse, who is granddaughter of one of our favorite Happy Camp Grandma’s showed how baton twirling is done by “Redding Buckeye Cuties” for second place. Aubrey Hill Girls even had old Blue dressed with a silver unicorn horn, and he patiently endured as he accompanied the girls in all their pretty costume wings.

In the Organizations category, the River Valley 4H won the first place with all the categories they have recently taken to the fair and worked on projects. The kids did a really terrific job and looked right smart on their full float in green and white. Then came the Outdoor Club which is sponsored by the Family Resource Center, riding on lawn mowers. In case you’ve missed all the excitement, lawn mower races are the newest activity in Happy Camp. We even had two lawn mower races the evenings of Bigfoot Jamboree. What fun. Brandon who was the recent winner was in the parade with the other guys.

Family Resource Center is a big part of our community because of the sponsorship of activities like the Outdoor Club and the Klamath River Veterans but they also had a float with Ryan Mitchell and lots of reading or being read to.

Commercial floats, which is the category for businesses, was won by Parry’s Marke3t which had out local wonderland activities on the float. Hunting Kayaking and Charley Fehley panning for gold were activities in our own wonderland. Second place was the first year for Marble Mountain Gift Company which opened Art and Treasure Weekend last June. They even had Alice and the Queen of Hearts in their Wonderland! Beautiful balloons made it a wonderland cloud of color coming down Highway 96. Double J won the third place in that category with another fun float.

There was an especially active Bigfoot captured in the cage this year, in fact, he was clever in escaping and rarely in the cage as he visited among the children and adults lining the streets of Happy Camp for the parade. Nell Sakota and Leonie were there organizing registrations and lining up the floats. It was a great time and the kids of Happy Camp have candy enough to last them to October most likely.

The Smokey this year was very good at pantomime and many of the youngsters ran up spontaneously for a hug at the River Park. Those that didn’t shriek in terror at least! The littlest kids don’t know what to think of these big furry beasts.

Bigfoot was also on the office float for the Chamber. The Happy Camp Chamber of Commerce continued the celebration of 25 years in business this year with the exciting news of a new office. They’ve moved into the little office next to the post office where they will be able to provide information to tourists and visitor to our community. The brochure racks and bulletin boards are up and the Chamber announced the Grand Opening of the office with an office float, decorated with cedar boughs. Bigfoot is of course a lifetime member of the Happy Camp Chamber of Commerce and sat at the desk tossing out bubblegum gold and silver coins to the parade spectators.

What a wonderful parade for this years 45th annual Bigfoot Jamboree!! We can hardly wait until next year, August 31-Sept 2, 2012 for next BIGFOOT JAMBOREE!!!