The 2019 Asheville Holiday Parade, presented by Bojangles and with the theme Peace on Earth, is Saturday, November 23 from 11am to 1pm throughout Downtown Asheville.
The 2019 Grand Marshal is Madeline Delp, Ms. Wheelchair USA 17/18. Madeline is a graduate of UNC Asheville and a resident of Buncombe County. She learned at a young age that sometimes almost losing your life can be the catalyst to truly finding it in a way you never had before.
Madeline Delp is an entrepreneur, speaker and pageant “roll-model” who loves to chase bold adventures. Her journey of going from being a terrified ten-year-old with a T-10 spinal cord injury to climbing Mt. Rushmore, traveling the world and winning Ms. Wheelchair USA shows the truth that we can all define our own potential. Her passion is to share this message while on speaking tours with anyone dealing with life “disabilities”. Madeline continued her passion of inspiring empowered living in 2016 by founding a nonprofit organization called Live Boundless, which helps to deliver wheelchairs to medically-underserved countries around the world. Her next adventures include being the first girl in a wheelchair to compete in Miss North Carolina USA and traveling to the Philippines and Ecuador for wheelchair delivery projects – along with shark cage diving in Florida!
For the fourth year the NC Arboretum, City of Asheville and Asheville Downtown Association are partnering for Downtown Local Lights, an artistic holiday light display in Pack Square and in Pritchard Park. Stay tuned for more info.