Right after our first double header home game of the season and before our next game on April 12, FoCo Roller Derby teamed up with the Spartans Junior Roller Derby league to promote our organizations at the annual Fort Collins St. Patrick’s Day parade, put on by NOCO Unify.
The parade, which started at Peterson Street and continued on through the Old Town Fort Collins portion of College Ave, offered an opportunity for local businesses, nonprofits, clubs, and community groups to participate in the revival of an old tradition.
As part of the parade. FoCo Roller Derby created our own float, featuring a giant roller skate and a rainbow with a pot of gold, and our team passed out flyers for game schedules for both the junior and adult leagues. Additionally, we handed out over 800 lollipops as part of the process. Families and residents lined the streets of old town to watch the parade, while also patronizing local businesses.
Building the float:
To begin the process, the team used a small towing trailer provided by skater Suga Smack for placing the float on. For the float itself, the team used an inflatable cauldron for the pot of gold and a balloon arch for the rainbow.
Finally, using a pole to secure it, the team created the centerpiece of the float: a giant roller skate with FoCo Roller Derby team colors created with cardboard, vinyl wrap, a printout of the FCRD logo, a giant ribbon, and black construction paper.
“Creating the St. Patrick’s Day float was a fun and rewarding team effort. It was great to see everyone’s creativity come together to build something festive for the community, said Sug, who provided the trailer for the float.
Skating in the parade:
One of the more special aspects of the day was the ability for derby families to participate. Junior skaters can participate at age 7 or older, meaning that parents and children can both skate. Rad Reputation is a newer member of the adult league, and was able to participate with their child, Avery Killer, who is a member of the juniors league.
“It was such a fun day! There were so many people out, and it was so special to see both the veteran players and juniors skating down College together, handing out candy and doing tricks. I loved the music, the float, the rainbow theme, and watching everyone connect with the community. It just really felt like joy from start to finish,” said Rad.
For our junior skater, Avery Killer, they enjoyed being able to participate with their mom in the parade as a team effort.
“The best part for me was running around giving candy with my mom,” said Killer. “It was really nice to see everybody coming to watch the parade and see us.”
One of the best parts was getting to interact with the community directly, by handing out candy and flyers to raise awareness of the derby games that community members can attend- fun for the whole family.
“On parade day, getting to interact with families, handing out candy and flyers, and seeing all the smiling kids along the route made it a really memorable experience,” said Sug.
“I loved giving candy to all those little kids and all the big people who wanted candy, too. I loved walking by the float and I loved when I was giving out candy and then I had to sprint ahead to catch up with the float,” said Killer.
All in all, our derby leagues ran out of candy (and flyers!) before the end of the parade- so if you missed it- you can visit here for the adults schedule of games and here for the juniors schedule. We hope to see you at our next games.
