With the war against Ukraine by Russia still wildly continuing the Derwent Agricultural Society decided to design a float that paid homage to the people of Ukraine.
“The people of Ukraine are continuing to be affected by the war they are in right now; and while it is still talked about, it isn’t as much as it was. I just wanted to bring awareness to it and show that we are still supporting them, and to say thank you as it was the Ukrainian Pioneers who came here and broke the land so we can have what we have today,” commented Connie Mackney.
At the begi
nning of the float, there was a sign that said ‘Count Your Blessings’ and then a heart-shaped sign that said ‘Pray for Peace’, with a metal decorative dove depicting/symbolizing peace along with a Ukrainian flag and an Alberta license plate that matched the blue in the sky and the flag.
In the middle of their float OLD (members dressed in overalls and straw hats and NEW (members wearing Ag Society yellow t-shirts that said “If you eat, thank a Farmer!” with wheat uniting both the old and the new.) On the back of the float, a banner hung saying, ”Long Live Ukraine.” All the decoration colours of the float were blue and yellow which represented the colours of Ukraine.
The members on the float tossed blue freezies to the crowds that said, “Pray for Ukraine.”
Mackney noted that it was a lot of work to design and decorate the float, but that it was a joy to be able to toss the Freezies to the children and participate in the parade.
“It was my first time decorating a float and I designed it to represent the past, present, and future. It was so long during COVID not being able to do anything like this, and now that we were allowed to have a resemblance of normalcy it was nice to be able to make the children happy. One of our old timers who always had a team of horses in the parade had passed away, so that gave me the motivation to do it,” explained Mackney.