Candy throwing banned at Pioneer Days parades

The Steinbach Chamber of Commerce has created new safety measures for next year’s Pioneer Days Parade.

The new measures include capping the age for children walking along vehicles or throwing candy at 10-years-old and above, not allowing candy thrown on the road and only given behind the parade barriers and adding 30 volunteers to monitor safety and the barricades.

Tessa Masi, executive director for the Steinbach Chamber of Commerce, said the fresh protocols were triggered by the rising numbers of people attending the parade.

“We had a fantastic parade last Friday. A lot of people came out as the town, as our city continues to grow, we just need to keep safety top of mind,” said Masi.

The chamber received calls and emails from concerned community members about the safety of children on the parade route, she said. When candy was thrown on the road, kids would venture past the parade barricades to pick it up, without watching for traffic, Masi said. After seeing a few close calls with children getting too close to the parade floats and vehicles, Masi said the chamber decided to create the measures.

“When we don’t throw candy from the float, it decreases the amount of candy that’s actually ending up in the middle of the street,” she told The Carillon. “The young kids are not thinking about safety. They have their eye on the prize.

Handing out candy should happen by putting the candy straight into people’s outstretched bags, which the majority of parade floats did, she added.

The chamber is looking for volunteers to help keep participants safe and behind the barriers,

“The general goal is that the headline of the parade is that everyone had a fabulous time and that is was really successful, not that someone got hurt,” Masi said.

The chamber is speaking with other communities that have parades to see what safety measures have been implemented elsewhere and to see if any other measures should be added.

Deputy Mayor Michael Zwaagstra said he trusts the chamber’s decision to create the new rules if they deem it important to maintain safety.

“I certainly respect the fact that they (the chamber) are wanting to keep people as safe as possible, and as a city, that’s something that we agree with and support,” he said. “When in doubt, its better to err on the side of safety.”