“Considering what the weather was like, it went pretty good,” parade co-chairman Bryan Westmoreland said. “With that kind of weather, there were a lot of things like people with antique cars that didn’t show, and I really don’t blame them for that.”

Also failing to be on hand for the event was the Person High School Marching Band. That decision, Westmoreland said, did not come from him or any other member of the sponsoring Roxboro Jaycees.

“The band didn’t show, and I have had a lot of calls concerning that,” Westmoreland said. “But I did not have a thing to do with that.”

Westmoreland said the crowd, which has been exceptional for the past several years, was thinner Saturday than normal. That, he said, could also be attributed to the weather conditions.

“[The crowd] was definitely not what it normally is,” Westmoreland said. He went on to say, however, that with the cold, rainy conditions that was somewhat to be expected.

On the bright side, Westmoreland said, was the fact that the Roxboro Jaycees used funds from the Christmas parade to adopt a family through A Miracle In Giving and two elderly citizens through the Person County Senior Center.

“The money that is brought in from the parade goes right back into the community every year,” Westmoreland said. “We were able to adopt a single mother with four children and two elderly shut-ins.

“That was $1,000 that we spent after the parade that went right back into the community,” Westmoreland added. “We want to thank the parade participants and everyone who helped to make that possible.”