FAIRMONT– The 33rd annual Fairmont Glows Parade is coming up on Friday, Nov. 17. This year, a few new events are taking place in conjunction with the event.

The Glows Parade traditionally takes place on the Friday before Thanksgiving and Fairmont Area of Chamber of Commerce president, Kandi Menne, said it serves as a kick-off to the holiday season.

The events of the evening start around 4 p.m. Friday when Santa, Mrs. Claus and two elves will fly into Fairmont Municipal Airport.

“They get out of the plane and all of the kids are in the waiting room. We encourage the kids to have their wish list and they can sit on Santa’s lap,” Menne said.

Santa and his entourage will be at the airport for about an hour before they’ll head downtown.

“Something new that’s going on in conjunction with the Glows Parade is the lighting of the tree downtown,” Menne said.

At 5:30, on the corner of Downtown Plaza and 3rd Street, a 20 ft. tall tree will be lit. This new addition is a group effort of several organizations which includes the former Focus on Fairmont group, as well as some downtown retailers.

“It will hopefully be an annual tree lighting,” Menne said. “It’s one more holiday experience to kick-off the season. It will create a festive experience and will remain lit up through Jan. 1.”

And then at 6 p.m the Glows Parade will begin.

“We have about 43 units right now. We take units up to the day of the parade and we usually get about 50 units,” said Menne.

She noted that the handouts that the units get have become more interesting throughout the years as it’s no longer strictly candy but merchandise, hot chocolate packets, glow sticks and a number of other items.

Santa will make an appearance in the parade and can be found in the bucket of the fire truck. This year there are several other new entries in the parade, which include a refurbished monster truck, LCFIT and Martin County Toys for Tots.

While Toys for Toys tried to get started up about two years ago, this is the first year it’s an official, established non-profit in the community. It’s being coordinated by Chuck Mixson.

“We are our own entity now. We are county-wide. We made up applications and took them to all of the public schools so they could give them to students. They’re slowly trickling in,” Mixson said.

The applications are being accepted until Dec. 1. As of right now, 329 children and 122 families with economic difficulties have submitted applications.

“They give us the name and ages of the children and they can put down suggested toys. Our toys are donated to us, but we do buy some toys. We just spent $1,000 to get a jump on it,” Mixson said.

Martin County Toys for Tots will accept donations in the form of money or new, unopened and unused toys. There are a number of collection sites sprinkled across the county.

The organization will also have a float in the Glows Parade, which is being built by the East Chain 4H Club, and members of the club will be accepting donations at that time.

“If you give us a present, we give you a swag bag and we’ll also be throwing out candy during the parade,” Mixson said.

He said he’d like this to be an annual event and is looking to get various youth groups involved in putting it on.

Mixson said how many gifts they can give is dependent on how many donations they get, but also said they won’t turn anyone away.

For the parade, Menne said the Chamber already has the judges lined up for the different categories. They are most ‘glowiness,’ commercial and non-profit.

The judges will be sitting in front of D & S Trophies so Menne said if entries are really looking to wow the judges, that’s the block to do it. The winner in each category will receive Chamber bucks.

While not organized by the Chamber, Immanuel Lutheran Church will also hold its annual chili and oyster stew dinner on Friday evening and there will also be a soup supper at First Congregational United Church of Christ (UCC) starting at 5 p.m.

Menne said a number of stores downtown will run specials during the day and some may be open late with special openings.

“The Glows Parade is such a neat event that there’s not much to change. The streets are always lined with people,” Menne said.

She also said she may be the only person who will be disappointed with the forecast. Some years there is rain, wind or snow, but as of now the 17th is projected to be a balmy 55 degrees.