by Fred Seely
Editorial Director
The Business Briefcase Brigade needs a few good men . . . or women.
The hit of last year’s Gator Bowl Parade, the Brigade is getting organized for another run on Dec. 31 at the award they took in last year’s parade.
“We’ll take anyone who wants to make a few practices and have some fun afterwards,” said Joe Snowberger, the Downtown Vision executive who’s behind the Brigade. “We had 35 march last year. We can handle a hundred.”
The Brigade members wear business suits and carry briefcases as they march in a somewhat orderly fashion.
“We were about 90 percent last year,” said Snowberger. “I’ve got a drillmaster from NAS coming to the practices this year, so maybe we can get a little better.”
They were good enough last year to take first place in the “special” category, a catch-all for units that don’t fall in the band or float categories.
The first practice is scheduled for Wednesday and there are two time slots: 11:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m. or 5:30-6:30 p.m. They’ll continue every Wednesday through Dec. 18. The practices will be on the Northbank Riverwalk between the T-U center and the Landing. The group will wind down at the Landing after the evening practice, Snowberger said.
The only requirement to march in the Gator Bowl Parade is to attend four practices, said Snowberger and, of course, have a business suit and a briefcase.
The group was put together when the parade coordinator, Pat Craig Corda of the Gator Bowl Association, told Snowberger that she’d like to see something unusual to go with the usual assortment of floats, bands and Shriners on motorcycles.
“We looked on the Internet and got some ideas,” said Snowberger. “There are Doo-Dah Parades in New Orleans and San Francisco, crazy parades with all sorts of things, and we got the idea from those.”