PCS CHICAGO PARTICIPATES IN THE 79th McDONALD’s THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE ON STATE STREET IN CHICAGO

Chicago, Nov. 30, 2011
R.S. Mago

 CHICAGO: The Punjabi Cultural Society of Chicago (PCS) kept up it’s tradition of enthusiastically participating in the 79th McDonald's Thanksgiving Day Parade held on the Thanksgiving Day Thursday November 24, 2011 on State Street downtown Chicago despite a chilly morning weather.

The parade was televised live on WGN Channel 9 from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m, and rebroadcast at 1 pm 4 pm on CLTV on the same day

Celebrating its 78th year, the McDonald's® Thanksgiving Parade is Chicago's premier holiday event. PCS was a part of 101 spectacular contingents proudly marching the parade route North on State Street from Congress to Lake Street.

 "PCS has been participating in this parade since 2005, it gives our Indian community a great exposure in the mainstream, and it shows our commitment to celebrate the American festivals," said PCS President Balwinder Singh Girn.

“ The theme of the PCS float and it's contingent was an Indian/Punjabi/Sikh wedding party (Baraat), which included the Bride and the groom in traditional Punjabi wedding outfits, the baraatees in festive ethnic costumes, Punjabi Dhol, amplified Bhangra music and street dancing. It was a great exposure of our community in the mainstream, through a major TV channel coverage,” said Rajinder Singh Mago PCS Board of Governors.

 University of Illinois Chicago Bhangra, and DePaul University Bhangra troupes showcased world famous Punjabi folk dance Bhangra to thousands of cheering spectators lined up along the State Street.

 Mona and Manjeet Bhalla were the bride and groom, Nikki Sekhon a baraatee, Kevindeep Atwal, Sunny Sekhon, and Ryan Singh played Punjabi Dhol (drum) along with Sunshine DJ to keep the spectators involved and the performers warmed up in the freezing morning weather.

Over 350,000 on-street spectators cheered along the parade route on the State street while an estimated 3.75 million at-home viewers watched on TV the PCS float, gigantic helium balloons, marching school bands, majestic Arabian equestrian units, fabulous specialty floats, spectacular performance groups, national celebrities and local personalities, in addition to Bozo the clown and Santa Claus.

The PCS participation was organized by Balwinder Singh Girn, Gurmit Singh Dhillon, Pardeep Singh Deol, Sunny Kular, Mohinderjit Singh Saini, Baljit Singh Sidhu, Sukhmel Singh Atwal, Thakar Singh Basati, Onkar Singh Sangha, Vick Singh and Rajinder Singh Mago with the help of many youth volunteers. 

The Chicago Festival Association (CFA),  a unique and exciting nonprofit organization in the city of Chicago, produced this McDonald's® Thanksgiving Parade.

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