More than 10,000 people lined 224th Street in Maple Ridge on Dec. 6 to welcome Santa Claus to Maple Ridge.
The Christmas in the Park festival attracted close to 3,000 people.
Dianne Enns, chair of the Christmas Festival Society, was pleased with the turnout, considering bad weather plagued Maple Ridge all that day.
“We ran out of popcorn as usual, we ran out of S’mores pops. The numbers were still good. We were quite happy with that we had lots of people in the park,” said Enns.
There were more than 200 volunteers that helped in the events success.
Parade winners:
• best band – Port Coquitlam Legion Pipe Band;
• best animals – TCB Ranch and J&M Acres Horse Rescue;
• best mascot – Maple Ridge Fire Department;
• best community non-profit – Ridge Meadows Search and Rescue;
• best youth non-profit – Port Hammond Girl Guides;
• best dance group – Dance FX School of Dance;
• best commercial A – Nurse Next Door;
• best commercial B – MLAs Doug Bing and Marc Dalton;
• best sports group - Ridge Meadows Minor Baseball Association;
• best float overall – Veinotte Horse Farm and Santa Claus.
The non-profit organization now needs donations for next year’s event. To donate go to http://www.mapleridgechristmasfestival.com or contact Enns at 604-655-2505.