Five Hills royalty wrap up holiday parade season
Special to Leader-Press
More than 250 miles, six parades, and all first or second place wins. The Copperas Cove Five Hills royalty represented the city in more than a half dozen parades this holiday season. All parades have a different theme requiring different scenery, different outfits, and different preparation.
The Gatesville Christmas Parade theme was Junk the Halls. It required more than 500 hours of combined work on behalf of the titleholders who each created her own outfit, turning trash into treasure. Preteen Miss Five Hills Kaydence Roberts made the bodice of her evening gown from 68 red Dairy Queen spoons and 185 paint strips created the skirt.
“The Gatesville parade was so much fun this year. All of us made our outfits out of stuff that was recyclable,” Roberts said. “I had lots of fun going around to all the businesses to collect my paint samples and my spoons to make my dress.
“I thought that everyone’s outfit was beautiful. Every queen made hers out of different things from plastic cups, old dishcloths, cereal boxes, plastic bags, and compact discs, to drink cups from Raising Cane’s restaurant. We looked totally amazing all in red.”
Teen Miss Five Hills Mary Rhorick marveled at the creativity of other parade entries as well.
“The parade was wonderful as it was great to see everyone’s unique take on Junk the Halls including reused and painted tires as Christmas trees,” Rhorick said.
Junior Miss Five Hills Hayley Sawyer said the Gatesville Parade was amazing because all of the royalty put so much work into their recycled materials dresses.
“I was wearing 129 roses on my dress and one in my hair for a total of 130 Solo cup red roses,” Sawyer said.
After a morning Gatesville parade, the royalty headed to Killeen for its annual Christmas parade placing second place in both holiday events. The theme for the Killeen parade was Santa’s Winter Camp. The titleholders snuggled in their sleeping bags with their tents and gathered around inflatable fires, roasting marshmallows. Other titleholders glided on sleighs.
“The Killeen parade later that day was so fun riding on the sleigh with my arms stretched out,” Sawyer said. “It was an exciting way to celebrate Christmas and share holiday cheer, royal-camping style.”
The Christmas parades are a reminder that the year-long reigns of the titleholders are coming to an end as they prepare to crown their successors on March 21, 2020.
Five Hills Ambassador Briana Liles said seeing all her sister queens junk made into treasure outfits was bittersweet.
“I was excited to see what everyone else came up with for the theme, Junk the Halls,” Liles said. “It was sad though because it was my last parade as the 2019 Five Hills Ambassador. The parade season was a lot of fun and I will miss it.”