CARTHAGE, Mo. — Saturday morning kicked off a highly anticipated event in Carthage.
Residents flooded streets for the annual Maple Leaf Parade.
Plenty of floats, marching bands, local organizations and even KODE and KSN-TV staff made it out for the celebration.
The parade traveled through Carthage, starting in the historic town square and ending at the junior high school.
This year marks 53 years of the festival commemorating the changing of colors of leaves in the fall.
For some, being a part of the event every year is an honor as they get to show their overwhelming support of their community.
Sarah Townley, of Jasper County 4-H says,
“I mean community, that’s a big part of what 4-H is, community service, community involvement, being a family. That’s a lot of it, just celebrating community, serving the community and being good citizens and sharpening life skills for these kids and we really wanna reach out and welcome as many people into our 4-H family as possible.”
Krista Stark of Southwest Missouri Democrats, says, “We’re super excited, we’re in Maple Leaf every year. We try to do our float bigger and better with more parade flags and more participants and more candy every year, but it seems like you can never have enough candy for Maple Leaf.”
The celebration continued today with a carnival, live music in the town square and a car show.
