There should be pretty clear skies with a few clouds and the temperature around 70 degrees for the Wake Forest Christmas Parade Saturday. Downtown Development Director Lisa Hayes said the weather and the parade’s continuing popularity should combine to lure over 20,000 people into downtown for the event, the last of the early-December public holiday events. Hayes said there will be over 100 floats and entries from local groups and businesses along with marching bands from local high schools and, of course, Santa Claus in his sleigh on the final float. The parade lines up along South White Street, and the starting point at 1 p.m. is the intersection of Elm Avenue and South White. The parade until will continue north on South White, turn right onto Wait Avenue and then right again on Brooks Street to end at the Elm Avenue intersection. The route provides a lot of viewing

To honor the 30th anniversary of Wake Forest Downtown Inc., four of the founding board members will be the grand marshals for this year’s Wake Forest Christmas Parade Saturday. The organization began in 1985 as the Wake Forest Downtown Revitalization Corporation after a group of local business people, merchants and politicians met at the home of the then-mayor, John Lyon, and discussed how a small town with about 6,500 residents could revitalize its lackluster downtown economy. The downtown had never recovered after Wake Forest College and its thousands of students moved to Winston-Salem in 1956. The DRC grew out of that discussion, and by the following year it was able to hire its first staff person. The 2015 marshals are Lyon, John Rich, James Warren and Blanche McPhatter. They will be honored at a lunch and will ride on the WFD float. Thomas Byrne, a Wake Forest College graduate and

November was a banner month for Wake Forest commercial building permits with Sam’s Club, Publix and the flex retail spaces at the under-construction Shoppes at Heritage Village all getting permits along with the gas center at Sam’s and a large building at 1228 Heritage Links Drive owned by Optimal Living LLC, which may be part of franchise group helping seniors stay in their homes by making those homes safer. Sam’s will have entrances on what was until now an unnamed service road but has been named Royall Cotton Road, echoing the town’s first industry, the Royall Cotton Mill off North Main Street. That is Royall with two L’s because it was named for the Royall family. There were also new businesses in existing buildings. Kim Wandrack has opened Pretty Practical in what was the Violin Shop at 145 South White Streeet, selling unique items and gifts made by local artisans.

Christmas is coming fast and members of the police department want to make sure it is a happy one for about 30 local children. For the seventeenth year, since 1999, Officer K.C. Warren has been organizing Shop with a Cop every Christmas season, and this year’s shopping spree will take place Wednesday, Dec. 16. The children will go to the department and be paired with their police officer “partners” and then driven to the Wake Forest Wal-Mart. Each child will be given $175 to spend on a winter coat and other items they choose. Afterward, everyone will enjoy a pizza party. Shop with a Cop was created to help less fortunate boys and girls in the Wake Forest area experience a joyous Christmas. Since1999, the program has helped well over 400 local children. The Wake Forest Police Department raises money for Shop with a Cop by sponsoring several fundraisers each