Sunnyside light parade turns 20

SUNNYSIDE -- The vines are new this year.

Wedged between the beaters of the grape harvester, the vine is festooned with lighted grape clusters marking a new twist in Ervin and Sharon Kilian's annual entry in the Sunnyside Lighted Farm Implement Parade.

So is the lighted red, white and blue American flag draped from the side.

"With a grape picker you can only do so many things because it doesn't have a solid outer shell," said Ervin Kilian, possibly the only area farmer to enter all 20 of Sunnyside's quirky but beloved annual Christmas shindigs.

The event has grown as it has garnered wide attention over the years. Among other places, it has been featured on CBS's Charles Kuralt show, the A&E Channel, National Public Radio and People magazine.

Saturday marks the 20th anniversary of the parade, which sends a long procession of decorated tractors, combines and harvesters through downtown Sunnyside. Organizers hope the anniversary will attract more people and more entries than ever.

So far, about 50 floats are entered, but organizers usually accept a few late-comers. And they hope 30,000 people will line the mile-long Edison Avenue parade route -- up from the 20,000 to 25,000 in recent years.

When it first started back in 1988, there were just 12 entries, piloted by residents who suggested lighting up their tractors.

"At first, I thought it was kind of silly," Ervin Kilian said.

Every year since, he has entered the harvester -- except for one time when he switched to a pickup just for something different.

If anybody could claim credit for the idea of a lighted farm implement parade, it was Bob Hadeen, a salesman who died in October this year, said Jim Warren, chairman of the volunteer group staging the event.

Those first entries were mostly tractors and other farm equipment. But over the years, the definition of farm implement has come to include almost all vehicles in the rural landscape -- fire engines, pickups and even septic tank pump trucks.

A host of related activity has sprouted over the years, too. Churches lead Christmas carols, businesses host cookie decorating and a few dozen joggers wearing Christmas colors and lights hold the annual Jingle Bell Run at exactly 6:29 p.m., one minute before the parade.

To give the crowds something extra this year, organizers have commissioned an ice sculpture of a tractor in Centennial Square on the corner of Edison and Sixth Street.

Before he became so busy organizing the parade, Warren and his family dressed in Victorian clothing and top hats to wander the streets.

But lighted vehicles are the big draw. Some people start decorating in early November, Warren said.

Ervin and Sharon Kilian, the second of a third-generation grape growing family, began decking out their 1978 Chisholm-Ryder automated grape harvester last week.

It features lighted snowmen and a sign reading "The Kilians." Ervin, 63, usually drives it with his grandchildren along for the ride, while Sharon, 60, takes pictures and watches with family and friends from the sidewalk.

Everybody helps decorate, but Ervin and Sharon Kilian alone tackled the grapevine earlier this week in a nephew's shop.

"This is a project I thought of last night, so I told him to do it," Sharon said with a laugh.

Ervin fiddled with zip ties and strings of lights while Sharon pointed and made suggestions.

"Whenever she hollers at me like that, I just do what she wants," he said.

* Ross Courtney can be reached at 930-8798 or rcourtney@yakimaherald.com.

If you go

The Sunnyside Lighted Farm Implement Parade begins at 6:30 p.m. Saturday and runs from the Sunnyside Chamber of Commerce office at 230 E. Edison Avenue, east along Edison Avenue, to the Mid-Valley Mall parking lot.

Other related activities include:

* 8:30-10:30 a.m. Breakfast with Santa at the Sunny Spot restaurant, 1850 Yakima Valley Highway.

* 9-11:30 a.m. Decorating cookies with Mrs. Claus at Dairy Fair, 400 Alexander Road.

* 1 p.m. An artist will begin carving an ice sculpture at Centennial Square, corner of Sixth Street and Edison.

* 4 p.m. Kiwanis pancake feed at the United Methodist Church, corner of Ninth Street and Edison.

* 6:29 p.m. Jingle Bell Run along the parade route.