Plant City’s Christmas Parade has been around for 53 years and Frank LaBarbera has helped make it happen every year. He’s seen and done just about everything with the parade, besides leading it.
The event’s board members decided it was time for that to change.
“We’re so excited to announce that Frank LaBarbera is our recipient this year and this is a long time coming,” board member Dodie White said in a news release.
LaBarbera has been named Grand Marshal for the 2018 parade, which hits the streets at 7 p.m. Dec. 7. He couldn’t be more excited to have the honor.
“It’s my baby,” LaBarbera said. “I’ve seen it grow from nothing. It’s really nice. We can be proud to put on a parade like that and we’ve been successful pretty much the whole time… I feel honored that they offered it to me. I wanted to do it for a long time but usually, I’m involved with working on the parade, so it’s hard. When you’ve learned your position in a parade, to replace you is pretty tough.”
LaBarbera’s background is in advertising and sales, and he spent much of his professional career with oil companies from the early 1980s until 2011. He is also a past president and exalted ruler of the Plant City Elks Club, past president of the Plant City Knights of Columbus and several other civic clubs in Plant City and Polk County. He’s also involved with parades for the Florida Strawberry Festival and has been for 10 years. But the Christmas Parade is his pride and joy and has been since he helped create the parade with the Jaycees back in 1965.
“I’ve been hanging in there and I’ve been involved from day one,” LaBarbera said. “We’ve had a pretty good run. It’s a pretty big parade.”
After 11 to 12 years of the Jaycees and Lani Purcell running the parade, LaBarbera got the Elks involved when Purcell could no longer run the event and it was in danger of being dropped. The Elks ran the parade for around 20 years with LaBarbera as a co-chairman, and he then joined the newly-created Plant City Christmas Parade Inc. board when it was created to run the parade.
Though LaBarbera said he’s been humbled and honored to be chosen as Grand Marshal, he’s quick to give credit where credit is due and thank all the men and women who have worked tirelessly with him over the years to create and maintain the parade.
“Some of the old timers around town were involved for a long time, too… they helped a lot for a long time,” LaBarbera said.
The 2018 parade will start at the intersection of Collins Street and Alsobrook Street and head north into downtown, turning right onto Reynolds Street and ending at the courthouse.