Schenectady’s Holiday Parade For 1st Responders Tuesday

When Schenectady's annual Holiday Parade was canceled before Thanksgiving, the city decided to hold a parade to honor first responders and it will be held this week. Here are the details. According to News 10 ABC, Santa Claus and first responder vehicles will be part of the "First Responders Holiday Parade" in Schenectady. There will be a host of decked out first responder vehicles along a route mapped out through the city with holiday music and the big guy himself. It will all happen on Tuesday, December 15th.

Assistant Fire Cheif Don Mareno said this of the decision to have a holiday parade:

We had this idea when news came that the Schenectady Holiday Parade was canceled because of the pandemic.
That parade is typically held in late November and believed to be the largest nighttime holiday parade in the Northeast. It would have been the 52nd year of the parade. With all the stresses of everything happening because of COVID, we thought it would be nice to bring the parade to the community.

There will be first responders visiting neighborhoods throughout the city and will start at 6 pm. The parade route will take the "First Responders Parade" through eleven of Schenectady's neighborhoods. You can also track the progress of the parade online HERE when it begins. To see the map of the parade route, click here.

If you are going to attend the parade, you are asked to be socially distanced and to wear a mask. The parade was made possible by Mayor McCarthy, the Schenectady City Fire and Police Departments along with the Schenectady County Sheriff's Department, Mohawk Ambulance Company, and the Department of Public Works.