Heritage Festival Parade Set for September 16

Destination Seneca County has announced that the Heritage Festival Parade, sponsored by Brian Bower – loanDepot, will take place on Saturday, September 16, 2023, at 10 AM in downtown Tiffin. The parade will take place during Heritage Festival weekend that kicks off Friday, September 15 and runs through Sunday, September 17. The theme of this year’s parade is, “Honoring Yesterday’s Pioneers, Celebrating Today’s Heroes”, with Connor Whaley serving as the Grand Marshall of the parade.

In February of 2021, at the age of three, Connor was going to multiple doctor visits for seemingly unrelated issues. He didn’t want to eat, had trouble sleeping and was very irritable. He had intermittent fevers as high as 104.5 degrees, yet all his tests would come back negative. His parents were stumped, but after three weeks of symptoms, on March 12, they requested bloodwork. They were told multiple times it wasn’t necessary, but they kept pushing, and it was good they did. Within a half hour of bloodwork, they were told to pack a bag and get to Nationwide Hospital as soon as possible. Bloodwork, plus a bone marrow biopsy, confirmed their son, Connor, had B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. 

In May 2023, Connor rang the bell after nearly 800 days of intensive treatment. At this year’s parade Destination Seneca County will honor Connor and the thousands of children and families that are impacted across the country as part of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Children and families that have been impacted by Childhood Cancer are asked to sign up to walk along Connor in the parade at www.DestinationSenecaCounty.org/Parade.

The Heritage Festival Parade route will begin on South Washington Street at St. Joseph Catholic Church and go through the intersection at Riverside Drive. The parade will begin promptly at 10 am. All are welcome to participate in the parade and can register at www.DestinationSenecaCounty.org/Parade. Parade participants are asked to be registered no later than September 8, 2023.