Jennie Mitchell said she lies awake nights thinking about ways to bring people to the Boothbay region. One of those sleepless nights resulted in the Lighted Fire Truck Parade as part of Boothbay Lights. On Nov. 28, Mitchell’s creation materialized with seven fire trucks competing. Dozens of spectators cheered along the route which began at the Boothbay fire station, proceeded toward Boothbay Common, and finished after a trek through St. Andrews Village and downtown Boothbay Harbor before returning to Boothbay Harbor Region Chamber of Commerce.

“I was thinking, ‘Who doesn’t like fire trucks,’ then I thought, ‘Who doesn’t like lighted fire trucks,’ and that’s how it came to me,” Mitchell said.

At 4 p.m., the parade began with decorated fire trucks from Boothbay, East Boothbay, Boothbay Harbor, Southport and Nobleboro competing for the Dalmatian Cup and People’s Choice Award. The event also had a couple of special guests. Santa and Mrs. Claus waved to the crowd while riding on Boothbay tanker No.2 wearing their traditional red and white suits along with a new piece of attire, surgical masks. Mrs. USA New England Kat Pinkham of Topsham participated in the inaugural event as one of  four parade competition judges. 

Seven trucks competed for the Dalmatian Cup as best entrant, judged by Pinkham and local judges Tancy Mitchell of Southport, Neal Reny of Boothbay and Kitty Boyd of Boothbay Harbor. And the first Dalmation Cup went to Nobleboro Fire Department. The event was also live streamed on Boothbay Region TV and Media Center. The People’s Choice Award was voted by text messages. And the people agreed with the judges, and chose Nobleboro as the best entrant.“We had people from all over the state, like from Madawaska, and around the country messaging votes. There were over 350 text votes,” Jennie Mitchell said. 

Boothbay had three entrants and finished third. Boothbay Harbor finished second.