Community First: Naperville’s Parade of Lights
It’s no secret that Naperville is a wonderful community. In fact, Niche.com named Naperville 2024’s #1 Best City to Live in America and #1 Best City to Raise a Family in America. As a family raising our kids here, we wholeheartedly agree!
There are many reasons that Naperville is exceptional, but for us, at the top of the list are all the events throughout the year, such as Naper Nights and Last Fling (where Carlos and Amanda met as teenagers, in fact!). One of our holiday traditions as a family has always been to bundle up and brave the cold for the Rotary Club of Naperville’s Parade of Lights. This year’s parade was on Black Friday, merging with another family tradition of staying in our PJs and putting up our Christmas decorations during the day.
Each year, we thought how much fun it would be to participate in the parade, and this year we made it happen! It was even better than we could have imagined – read on to learn why!
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The Parade with a Purpose
Did you know the Parade of Lights is called the Parade with a Purpose? The Rotary Club of Naperville has been serving the community since 1941, and their motto is “service above self.” The net proceeds from the parade are donated to area organizations, primarily focused on those serving the youth of our community. Isn’t that outstanding? Both personally and professionally, we believe it is important to participate in our community, including giving our time and financial support to initiatives that make the community such a wonderful place to live. It was such a natural fit for us to sponsor the Holiday Parade of Lights with all the good it does locally!
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Our Mighty Parade Crew
We’ll be honest… It was COLD the night of the parade! That’s why we’re even more humbled that so many people came out to walk in the parade with us. It was a family affair, with half of our parade crew being kids. Not only was the Montano family out in force – Juan and Maria (our founders and Carlos’s parents), Carlos and Amanda, and our three kids – but we were joined by extended members of the larger team that makes Montano’s run, as well as their families. Seeing how everyone came together, donned Montano’s sweatshirts and silly antler headbands, handed out candy canes, and joined us in ringing in the season with the Naperville community was something we won’t soon forget.
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Highlighting Some Other Parade Participants
The groups who participated in the parade were a pretty diverse bunch. From community service organizations to local law enforcement to service-focused businesses like Montano’s, lots of entities were represented. Here are some we were particularly excited to see!
· Special Olympics Illinois – they have to be first on our list because they joined the Grand Marshal and Mayor Wherli in kicking off the parade! Special Olympics is a global organization, with a mission of creating a world of inclusion and community for those with intellectual disabilities. It was an honor to walk alongside these special athletes!
· Loaves and Fishes – what an valuable and necessary resource for our community! Loaves and Fishes is celebrating 40 years of service to people in DuPage, Will, Kane, and Kendall Counties. They assist more than 9,000 people a week with food assistance and their CARES programs, living out their mission of “Ending hunger. Transforming lives.”
· Career & Networking Center – since 1996, Career & Networking Center (formerly Community Career Center) has been working to support the needs of unemployed and underemployed members of our community. They provide career coaching, networking opportunities, and education to empower and enrich the lives of job seekers.
· Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana – our younger daughter is currently a Girl Scout, and she had to make the hard decision of walking with us or with her troop. (We may have had a little influence, but family won.) We are huge fans of the Girl Scouts organization. We love their focus on helping young women discover their strengths, explore new things (for us, the focus on nature and outdoor activities is particularly important!), and use their voices and talents to serve their community and the world.
We don’t have room to name everyone, but it was a truly fantastic lineup of participants!
Did you miss the parade? Naperville Community Television (NC17) live streamed the entire event and generously posted it to their website! You can watch it here (and if you’re specifically looking for Montano’s, you’ll find us around the 40-minute mark.
Join us for next year’s parade! This will definitely be an annual tradition for us, and you never know what we might have in store for next year’s float!