The Krewe of Des Allemands will take its traditional route through the west bank streets of St. Charles Parish when it rolls Sunday.
The parade will begin at 1 p.m.
Mitzi Petit, who helps organize the parade, said once again the fate of the Carnival tradition was in jeopardy this year because the committee wasn’t sure whether to have the parade due to the damage so many parish residents sustained in Hurricane Ida. Last year the parade was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“We were really not sure how to approach things this year,” Petit said. “Everybody has been through so much. We knew for sure that two floats were destroyed in Ida and that got us wondering if we lost more, and since the last parade we’ve had two float captains pass away. We were worried that it wouldn’t happen and that people wouldn’t be able to get a float together, but the response has been great so far.”
Petit said the parade committee has heard from many residents about how much they missed the parade last year.
“We’ve been around a long time, and it’s something people look forward to,” she said. “There’s quite a few new faces this year too.”
The krewe held a dance last month to celebrate the 2022 King and Queen Roland “Ronnie” and Nancy Rome Dowouis and Grand Marshals Yvette “Peachie” Roger and Gay-Lynn Folse.
“It went really well,” Petite said of the dance. “It turned out to be a beautiful day. We look for couples to serve as king and queen who are pillars of our community. The majority of our town is centered around St. Gertrude, so a lot of times our royalty and grand marshals are parishioners there. This year our royalty and grand marshals are from Des Allemands, but sometimes we pick people from Bayou Gauche and Paradis.”
As in years past, St. Charles Parish Hospital will be collecting peanut butter and cash along the parade route. Everything collected will be donated to St. Charles Social concerns to stock their pantry. This is the 29th year the hospital has worked with the community on this collaboration.
“I think everyone is ready to have Mardi Gras,” Petit said. “It’ll be nice to have the parade back. Especially with Ida … it’s more important than ever. The storm has definitely made our community a lot closer. We need that sense of normalcy and we’re ready to have our families back together and to have a good time. We may not all be in the same boat together, but we’re definitely in the same bayou together.”
Be the first to comment