A Zamboni parade of sorts took place in Evergreen on March 3.
The Evergreen Park & Recreation District Zamboni, flanked by a Jeffco Sheriff’s car with its lights flashing, an EPRD truck and a tractor, made its way from Evergreen Lake to the parks operation office in Buchanan Park.
Heart Cameron, ERPD’s parks operations manager, was the parade marshal of sorts since he was the lucky Zamboni driver, and people honked their horns and waved as the caravan went by. He said it was fun to watch their faces as they realized he was driving a Zamboni down the road.
It took about an hour to go up Evergreen Parkway, onto Ponderosa Drive and then snake their way through subdivisions, driving in front of Evergreen Middle School and Bergen Meadow Elementary before turning onto Bergen Parkway. The weather was perfect for this new parade.
Cameron said he had so much fun that he was walking on sunshine while driving the Zamboni that he calls his baby with his dog, Sir Harmon Pickles, on his lap.
He figures he may have traveled up to 5 mph going down a couple hills, probably not breaking the speed of a turtle.
“I wasn’t going fast enough to get the wind rolling my hair,” he said, laughing.
After ice skating season closes, the Zamboni usually is parked in a garage at the lake all summer, but this year, the garage is needed for more boat storage — hence the parade northward.
Alan Gionet with the Active4All Foundation, EPRD’s foundation, keeps saying to keep Evergreen weird, and Cameron figures on March 3, he helped continue advancing that moniker.