We had 24 entries for the boat parade this year. Thank you to all the boaters that took the time to decorate your boats for all the residents of Bayou Vista to enjoy. This year we decided to rent generators to make it easier for folks to enter the parade. Manager, Karen Tamez of Nations Rent in Texas City gave us a special deal for the 13 generators we rented. I asked residents to please donate money to help cover the cost and these are the folks to THANK JIM MURPHEY, DONNA & GLENN HARTON, ROSS LEAGO, DONNA STOLPMAN, DEBBIE HUTCHISON, JOHN   MOEN, CHRIS WOOLWINE, JOHN & KATHY BURLESON, VICKY HOWARD & CINDY GOLIAN.

A new tradition to this years parade was the drawing of gifts to give out to boat captains that finished the parade and returned to Brenda & Mark Johnstone's home. Manager of Academy in Galveston, Jeff Gindel, donated two large five-day ice keeper ice chests, which Michael Bausman and Debbie Hutchison won, along with boat cushions David Hiton and Ryan Chasiola received. Jack Justus, manager of Boaters World in Galveston, donated two eighty-quart ice chest that Kirk Howard and Judy Williamson received. Carl Davis of Bayou Beverage donated a nice liquor basket that Sonya Hershey was happy to win. Ed McKensie at Vista Video donated two gift certificates which Lynne Hester and Marvin Ferestad won. Big Daddy's certificate went to Gay Reeves and gift certificate from Sylvia at Hair Pros went to Barry Shaneyfelt. JR and Roselinda Longaria donated a Marylin Miglin perfume and bath set, which Travis Bleakley won. Donna Harton donated Matrix Shampoo and Solution that went to Steve Whatley. It was really nice to be able to give folks that put the time and effort into decorating their boats a prize. We hope to be able to do this again at next years Christmas Boat Parade the second Saturday of December in 2003, so mark your calendars.

Other folks that need to be THANKED are the members of the garden club that donated the chili for the boaters. They were able to warm up their taste buds while waiting on the votes from the judges to come in. Lynne Hester purchased the drinks for the evening and JR and Roselinda provided all the paper goods. As always Billie Moore of Neptune Properties provided the Tiny Tim award. Judy and Mickey Grove of Mickey's Marina purchased the first, second and third place trophies.

The judges really had a hard time choosing the winning boat's this year as they had so many greatly decorated boats to choose from. The votes were tallied on a point system & we must say they were very spread on the different entries. I must say that they all deserved a trophy. We are glad that we had the wonderful prizes to be able to give out to those boaters that spent their time & money to decorate the boat's and finished the parade. If anyone would like to donate for the next   parade please let me know by calling Brenda Johnstone at 935-9544 or 935-7333 or just visit me at GULF COAST COMPUTER in the BV shopping center.