News Article

College of the North Atlantic will most certainly be found on Santa’s “nice” list this year as a number of the college’s campuses took home awards for the floats they entered in their local Christmas parades.
 
The college’s St. John’s campuses teamed up to create their Frozen themed float and took home the award for Best Float Over 20 Feet. Angela Hiscock, chair of the Christmas Parade Committee, which is a subcommittee of the Marketing Team for the St. John’s region, says they started planning their float for the Downtown Christmas Parade in September.
 
“Anyone who has ever built a parade float knows that it’s a lot of work, but seeing the smiles on children’s faces on parade day makes everything totally worth it,” she said. “We start planning in September. We come up with a concept, order the necessary supplies, and begin making costumes etc. Keeping with this year’s Frozen theme, we created a life size paper mache reindeer of Sven and a sleigh which began construction long before the week of decorating.”
 
She says at any given time they had up to 25 volunteers for the float.
 
“From decorating and cutting out snowflakes to wearing costumes on parade day, every role, no matter how small, plays a significant part in pulling it all together. Prince Philip Drive’s student council played a large role this year in helping make parade day a huge success. We even had people volunteer from the outside, such as family members and friends of staff. A big thank you to each and every person who help make this year’s CNA float number one!”
 
Placentia campus took home first place in the commercial division for their Lego inspired float, while Corner Brook campus claimed the Best College Award from their nighttime parade.
 
“Our campus was thrilled when our float received the Best College Award at the Corner Brook Kinsmen 3rd Annual Santa Claus Parade,” said Chantelle Troy, student development officer. “It was a busy couple of days getting the float ready and it would not have happened without the leadership of two of our Civil Engineering instructors, Jamie Brake and Finton Gaudette. A huge thank you to the Civil students, members of the Student Council, the instructors and anyone else that pitched in to make our float an award winner.”
 
Port aux Basques’ Caveman Christmas themed float sported dinosaurs created by the Metal Fabrication students. Meanwhile, Baie Verte took third place with their float, which also used the Frozen theme.
 
Clarenville campus also used the Disney hit Frozen as the theme for their float this year, which took first place in that community’s parade. The 10-person team, which included students from the college’s Distributed Learning programs, started planning in November and completely decked out their 30-foot float which included an old fashioned ship and mountain peaks covered in snow.
 
“The Lion’s Clarenville Parade is a major community event in Clarenville,” said instructor Paul Tilley. “We play a big part in the community so it’s important that we be part of the parade. This project provided a fantastic opportunity for our students, staff and their families to use their talent to showcase just what we can do at our campus.”
 
Bay St. George campus participated in the Stephenville parade a slightly different way, by lending support and equipment to community groups for the nighttime event. Each year the campus loans two flatbed trucks to groups in the community – one to the Girl Guides and the second to the parade’s organizers, the Kinsmen, for Santa Claus to make his grand entrance on. Commercial Driver instructors volunteer to drive the floats each year and staff at the heavy equipment garage provide support that is invaluable to the groups. The college also had equipment from the Mobile Crane Operator program make its way down Main Street this year, decorated with lights and college Christmas banners.
 
Of course, the college’s mascot Nanuk was on-hand for several of the parades and felt quite at home on those Frozen themed floats.
 
St. Anthony campus took part in their town’s Christmas parade this past weekend with a Minecraft inspired float. Their hard work paid off as the campus took first place in the non-commercial division.
 
“Word around town is that this has been one of the best parades in several years and of course we are very pleased to have played our small part to bring enjoyment to all those little folks eagerly waiting for Santa’s big night,” said campus administrator Cecil Roberts. 
 
To view images from the parades to date, visit the college’s Facebook page at www.cna.nl.ca/facebook.
 
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Media Contact:
 
Glenda McCarthy
Public Relations Specialist
College of the North Atlantic
709.643.6408
glenda.mccarthy@cna.nl.ca