With financial woes threatening to shut off the switch and cancel the upcoming Melbourne Light Parade, a landscaping company is donating $10,000 to save the popular Christmas-themed event.
“My kids love it every year. Me and my family go. They had so many different things being canceled that would normally bring the community together to enjoy the festivities, enjoy the spirit of the season,” said Ron Robin, who owns Bob’s Complete Landscape & Maintenance.
Thanks to Robin’s $10,000 donation, the Melbourne Light Parade is fiscally saved and will take place as scheduled on Dec. 9, Karen Harshaw said. She is president of the small charity that is organizing the 31st annual nighttime charitable parade, which features colorfully illuminated floats and collects food, toys and pet food from spectators to benefit the needy.
In a Monday Facebook plea, Harshaw announced her nonprofit needed $9,000 to $10,000 by Dec. 1 to help cover costs — including insurance, printing, portable restrooms and golf cart rentals — or else the festive parade would be canceled.
The parade’s plight came on the heels of the cancellation of the Space Coast Light Festival. The drive-thru holiday display — which previously operated for many Decembers at Wickham Park in Melbourne — had been slated to illuminate Fred Poppe Regional Park in Palm Bay.
“Due to reasons beyond our control, we have decided to cancel the light festival until further notice,” reads an announcement on the Space Coast Light Festival website.
“However, we remain optimistic and hopeful. The magic and wonder of the Light Festival is only being paused, not extinguished. We are dedicated to bringing back the festival in all its luminous glory as soon as it is feasible,” the announcement added.
The Melbourne Light Parade has had turbulent financial times in recent years. In 2017, the Melbourne City Council voted to stop using taxpayer dollars to help fund four parades: Melbourne Light Parade ($7,000), Fourth of July ($2,500), Memorial Day ($2,000) and Veterans Day ($2,000).
Then, in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing recession forced cancellation of the Melbourne Light Parade.
Harshaw labeled Robin’s $10,000 donation as “incredible.”
“We’ve never had a donation this large in the whole time of the parade, at all,” Harshaw said.
Robin said he purchased Bob’s Complete Landscape & Maintenance 2½ years ago, and the Melbourne company has served Brevard County the past 39 years. He said he discussed the upcoming Melbourne Light Parade with his wife and daughters last week, then was startled to see television news coverage of its potential cancellation.
“It needed to continue on, and go from there. With everything else going around in the country and the world, we need some brightness in the season,” Robin said.
Melbourne Light Parade details
The nighttime parade starts at 6 p.m. Dec. 9 on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. at the former Land Yacht Port-O-Call property, near Hilton Melbourne Rialto Place.
The holiday procession will head south to Hibiscus Boulevard, then turn west and follow the roadway to Gateway Drive, near The Oaks Shopping Center. The parade route stretches about 2 miles long.
Parade spectators are encouraged to bring a nonperishable food item, new unwrapped toy or a bag of dog or cat food. Volunteers walking alongside the first float will collect these donations to benefit the Brevard County Pet Food Bank, Hands for Healing International and Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida.
Harshaw said about 30 organizations have signed up to participate in the upcoming parade.
“We are still accepting participants. If anybody wants to jump on board, they can always go to our website. That’s where our registration forms are,” Harshaw said.
For more information, visit melbournelightparade.org.
Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY (for more of his stories, click here.) Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1
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