I confess to not understanding quite how this promotion works, and I’ve been unable to get in touch with anyone who has authoritative information about it, but here’s the text of an email being forwarded around the neighborhood that relates to $20,000, J.L Long Middle School and the New Year’s Parade in downtown Dallas Thursday at 1 p.m. The email was originally written by Long principal and neighborhood resident Danielle Petters:
"A team of J.L. Long students won one of 10 slots in the New Year’s Parade ‘Vote for the Float’ contest. Their winning float design "All Roads Lead Home" will be constructed by professional float-builders and featured in the nationally televised parade on January 1st.
"Viewers will be able to vote for their favorite float, with the winning school receiving $20,000 from Comerica Bank.
"Ms. Soniat, the art teacher at J.Llong sponsored the award-winning design team.
"Please vote as many times as you can and encourage friends, neighbors, relatives, and strangers you meet in the street to do the same! Our school could really use $20,000 and our students deserve this kind of national recognition!"
You can catch the parade at 2:30 p.m. live on KDFW-TV (FOX 4) or on the station’s website. The station’s website also has a map of the parade route downtown if you want to check it out in person.
It’s also worth noting that the Morning News has a story about the parade and $20,000 contest, but only DISD’s Greiner Middle School in Oak Cliff is mentioned as a possible winner, further confusing the issue for me, anyway.
