PARADE LEMONADE

One who worked long hours on the float entered in the State Fair parade by the Coalition of Rainbow Alliances said she was “heartbroken” when rain canceled the parade and the group’s chance to win for the 10th year in a row. But wait. Turns out the judging is done in advance and once again CORAL, “Uniting the Central Illinois LGBT Community,” won the Governor’s Sweepstakes Award for top prize. The float got its day in the sun when it was invited to appear in the parade for the fair’s Veterans Day, where it got a wonderful reception from the vets and their families. For the parade theme, “Making Memories,” the CORAL float featured a scrapbook 13 feet tall and 13 feet wide, with four photos of the group’s winning floats from previous years, and a Brownie camera with a strobe light flashing. Bert Morton, chief floatmaker for CORAL since 2005, says 25 to 30 people worked several months to build the float and 125 showed up at an Aug. 9 reception to see it. This week the float is being dismantled while organizers start making plans for next year’s entry in the Twilight Parade.