October 22, 2010 9.00 am This story is over 161 months old

Kids to parade with torches for Christmas

Torchlight Parade: 200 pupils from a school near Lincoln will parade through the city centre to add a touch of magic.

Two hundred children from a school near Lincoln will form a torchlight procession in the city centre to celebrate the Christmas season.

Pupils from Cherry Willingham Community School will parade all the way from the City Square to Uphill Lincoln on December 9.

The school’s music co-ordinator Michael Flowers came up with the idea after discussions with the Lincoln Business Improvement Group (BIG).

“I mentioned that we had suffered a fire at the school in April and how everyone had expected it to really hit us,” Flowers said.

“However the students worked very hard, achieving the school’s best-ever results.

“As a result we changed our school badge to one depicting a phoenix. I said it would be great if 200 of our pupils could take part in the parade.”

Flowers is now gathering pupils from the school aged 11 to 16 who are keen to be part of the Torchlight Parade in December.

“We are close to Lincoln and a stream of pupils carrying torches up Steep Hill would celebrate the Christmas season and also symbolise how the school had risen like a phoenix from the ashes, following the blaze,” he explained.

Lincoln BIG’s Events Manager Michael Armstrong thinks the procession will add a touch of magic to the festive season.

“The procession will start off from the Cornhill at 6pm, after the school pupils, carrying lanterns (containing LED torches), will line up behind two donkeys, and make their way up the High Street and Steep Hill into Castle Hill.”

The kids are due to arrive there at 6.30pm, in time for a Carol Service and Nativity, which will run until 7pm.

Source: Lincoln BIG