The September long weekend in Cochrane is all about pancakes, rodeo, and of course, the Labour Day Parade.

The annual parade is one of the biggest events of the year in Cochrane, and it relies heavily on help from various volunteers. The Cochrane and Area Events Society (CAES) is currently looking for extra hands to help with barricades on Monday. 

Marina Chabbert with CAES says the events Cochranites love to attend need lots of extra hands. “Throughout the year we need probably close to 200 volunteers. We are really heavily dependent on that. A lot of our events can't run without it and the parade is a critical example.”

“We need people on the barricades for people who don’t know there's a parade going on and they decide to move that barricade and go ahead anyway or right around it, it can cause some serious confusion and even cause for concern for safety,”

She says that volunteering for the parade is a short time commitment as well. 

“It's only in the morning. So we're asking from 7:30 till the end of the parade. We don't have as many different entries this year, typically we run about the 70 entries and we're close to 50 mark right now so that means a shorter parade in the end.”

Anyone interested in lending a hand can sign up to volunteer for the 2021 edition of the Labour Day Parade here.