Everybody’s business

Love a parade
Organizers of the Celebration of People Parade have a new idea: same parade, different name.

Starting today, citizens are being asked to suggest names as part of a contest.

The parade takes place May 1, and it’s a popular one. Student and community groups build floats and march through downtown Chico in a family-friendly atmosphere. There are kiddie gymnasts, Greek organizations, Clampers—the whole ball of wax.

To suggest a name, go to www.nametheparade.com by March 25 and then return to vote on the finalists. The new name will be unveiled on April 15.

The parade was started in 1994 to bring back the community spirit—without all the drinking and riots—that was lost when Pioneer Days took a tumble back in 1987. The Rancho Chico Days parade, even when sponsored by the city, also spawned riots and met an untimely end. The Celebration of People parade, however, has been as mellow as the name suggests.

Criteria for the new name include: how the suggested name fits with Chico traditions and values, the number of times a suggested name appears and the creativity of the name suggestion.

The rules are one entry per person, no trademarked names and, please, kids, no profanity.

If they build it, they will win
Here’s a shout out to Chico State University’s Construction Management program.

Student teams (which included engineering, computer science and technology students as well) beat out 11 other Western universities in an annual competition held Feb. 5-7 in Reno.

The Chico teams won trophies in all of the four divisions, including first places in the “commercial” and “residential” categories. They were given theoretical projects ranging from apartment buildings to an airport runway rehab. Over the weekend teams had to budget and bid the projects.

It sounds much more real-world than The Apprentice.

Professor Tom Heustis, chair of the Construction Management Department, said people from the industry were “literally standing in line” to meet Chico State team members at the job fair after the competition.

Watch out with that ax
While singer/songwriter/guitarist Bruce Cockburn is in town for his Feb. 21 concert at the Paradise Performing Arts Center, he’s also putting his John Hancock on a guitar—for charity.

Steve Schuman of North Valley Productions, whose daughter goes to Pleasant Valley High School, came up with the idea, and the Music Connection was happy to arrange with the Washburn guitar company for the donation of an ax. Kinko’s donated the printing and design for fliers, and the fund-raiser for PV’s music program was good to go.

“It bothers me so much that our schools are struggling financially,” Schuman said. “I contacted Bruce Cockburn’s people and shared a possible fund-raising idea with them. They loved it.”

Raffle tickets, which are $5 or three for $10, will be at the Music Connection at 958 East Ave. until the day of the concert and perhaps also at the Saturday Farmers’ Market. Schuman said he hopes to raise between $1,500 and $2,000 for music program equipment and transportation costs.