RUMFORD — Veterans Park at the end of Congress Street has a large blue spruce tree for Christmas, thanks to Rumford residents and a Mexico boom truck operator.

Eric Giroux said Tuesday afternoon that the 28-foot-tall spruce was donated by Tim Parent of Franklin Street for the Christmas in the Valley Parade, which ends at the park Friday, Dec. 7.

The parade starts at 6:30 p.m. Registrations will run from 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. with judging of the floats promptly at 5:30 p.m. This year’s theme is “A Holiday Production,” highlighting a favorite holiday story or movie.

Giroux said they couldn’t decorate other softwood trees in the park because they were too close to a power line, so the decision was made to bring in a cut tree.

At 7 a.m., a Bancroft Corp. crane held Parent’s spruce in the air while it was cut from the yard by Jacques Chartier of Chartier Logging of Mexico. A Rumford crew hauled the tree to the park on a flatbed trailer.

Giroux dug a hole for the tree and Chartier arrived with the boom truck at about 4:15 p.m.

Giroux’s two stepchildren, 6-year-old Rilan and 9-year-old Gracie Farnum, helped Robert Chase and Mike Arsenault untangle two ropes to help lift and anchor the tree.

Chartier lifted the tree from the trailer while Chase, Giroux, Arsenault and Brandon Roberts moved its trunk into position for the final lift into the hole.

Once the tree was in, Giroux shoveled in dirt around it while the other three anchored ropes into the ground to help center the tree as River Valley Chamber of Commerce Administrator Peter Perry watched.

Perry said there is still time to enter floats in the parade, which will travel from Mountain Valley High School down Hancock Street to Lincoln Avenue, onto Waldo Street to Rumford Avenue, across Portland Street and down Congress Street.

“We’ll take them last minute, we don’t care,” Perry said.

The parade is sponsored by the River Valley Chamber of Commerce and the Rumford Fire Department. It will feature the 10 towns in the River Valley.

Once the parade arrives on Congress Street, Santa will wave his hands at the head of Congress Street and the Christmas tree at the end of the street will be lit, officially starting the holiday shopping on Shopper’s Island.

Santa will greet children at the fire station after the parade. To register a float, contact Perry at 364-3241. There will be two categories for the floats: nonprofit/civic and business/commercial. There will be banners for the winners of these two categories placed in front of their float for the parade.

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