Cash Christmas parade elf takes yearly chaos in stride

A map showing the location of Cash, Arkansas.
A map showing the location of Cash, Arkansas.

CASH -- As the organizer for each of Cash's past 10 Christmas parades, Will Keedy has seen plenty of holiday havoc in the days leading up to the event.

He can recall the inaugural parade panic, when the person picked to play Santa had lost 30 pounds over the summer, and Keedy feared he was too skinny, so he stuffed the skinny St. Nick with pillows.

Another time, there was an overabundance of parade participants, and Keedy had to line them up on the edge of town.

He has dealt with snow, ice and rain -- the parade has been rescheduled three times in those 10 years.

This year, just more than a week before the Dec. 4 parade, Keedy couldn't hang lighted decorations on the town's utility poles along the parade route on Arkansas 18 because Mayor Michael Cureton took off to go hunting. Since Cash has no "cherry pickers," or bucket trucks, Cureton was the only person who could borrow a truck from neighboring Bono to string the large green and red decorative snowflakes and bells.

But, Keedy said, he knows the mayor will be back this weekend, and he is sure the decorations will be hung in time.

Such is life during the holidays for Keedy, who has directed the Christmas parade in the Craighead County town of 342 since he was 14 years old.

Like Santa, Keedy, now 23, checks his list -- a lineup of school bands, choirs, businesses with floats and other participants -- in last-minute preparation.

It's an annual ritual that he has taken on since planning the town's first Christmas parade in 2006.

"I don't want to take the credit saying I did it all," Keedy said. "Others have helped. But I hope I've brought the Christmas spirit into our community."

Keedy came up with the idea for his town's holiday parade after he and his father, Mike Keedy Jr., attended Bono's parade in 2005.

"After it was over, Will said, 'Why can't we have one, Dad?'" the elder Keedy recalled his son asking. "I told him if he could get the City Council and mayor on board, we'd do it."

The next summer, after he presented his idea to the Cash City Council and received the aldermen's blessings, Will Keedy began calling anyone he thought would be interested in participating.

The teenager wore dress shirts and carried a notebook and cellphone everywhere, making parade-related calls after school and during breaks from his homework.

"We quit counting when we had 77 entries," his father said. They lined up participants on the western edge of town. More than 1,000 people lined the town's main street to see the parade.

Two years later, in 2008, Will Keedy added a Christmas lights contest in which people decorated their houses. The winners, chosen by Jonesboro media representatives, received trophies and their names were included on a plaque in City Hall.

"The parade has improved each year he's done it," Alderman Joan Rose said. "I'm proud he's doing this."

Lynn Billingsley of Cash takes her daughter and granddaughter to the parade every year.

"We live near the highway, so we can stay inside where it's warm until the parade starts," she said. "I think this is a good little parade. We don't have to drive to Jonesboro to see it.

"The kids look forward to it," she said. "Our streets are lined up before dark with people waiting for it."

Life has changed for Will Keedy over the past decade. He graduated from Westside High School and went to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville for a year.

He ran for mayor when he was 18 and for a spot on the Cash City Council two years later. He lost both bids. He now works as an admissions representative at a Jonesboro hospital.

But he still organizes the parade each year.

"There's a lot of negativity in the world," he said. "People are busy and stressful. But I feel I see all that subside for a moment during the Christmas parade. Families come together, and people who've moved away come back to their community.

"It's like a homecoming. This brings people together for a day."

Keedy, who has lived in Cash all his life -- except for that year in Fayetteville -- has seen several of his friends move away during his decade as the parade organizer.

"At any moment, things could change," he said. "I could have an opportunity to pack up and move across the state or even the country at the spur of the moment.

"A lot of my friends have moved off, but I've ended up staying here."

He doesn't regret remaining in town.

"I've learned a lot about myself over the years," Keedy said. "I've built some skills a lot of young people hadn't gotten at this age."

This year's parade begins at 7 p.m. Dec. 4, and participants are asked to line up by 5:30 p.m.

Keedy said four of the town's residents who are 90 or older will serve as grand marshals.

He said he knows he will remain in Cash and direct the parade for at least two more years until his sister graduates from high school.

"As soon as the parade ends, I look ahead and think about how I can make it better for the next year," he said. "I may be young, but, for now, I'm here to stay."

A Section on 11/26/2015

Upcoming Events