Meet the Person behind the Cortland County Dairy Parade

John Harrison: Good morning, everybody! Welcome back to another edition of Meet Cortland County. It’s John Harrison in the Cayuga Health as part of Centralis Health System-sponsored studios, and joining me in the studio is Andrea Niggli, the co-chair of the Cortland County Dairy Parade. Andrea, thanks so much for joining me.

Andrea Niggli: Thanks for having me!

John Harrison: Yeah, of course. Happy to have you here and, you know, when we were trying to brainstorm, “Hey, you know, what do we do for Meet Cortland County this week?” I was like, “Well, we got the Dairy Parade coming up!” and me and Scott are particularly excited because we’re going to be driving the X101 van in it.

Andrea Niggli: I’m very excited to hear this! That’s great.

John Harrison: Yeah, so you know, happy to have you in the studio and, you know, for me, this is going to be my first time actually in the parade, right? I’ve gone and I’ve seen the parade and it’s always a great time, but I guess I’m happy to have you here for a little crash course on what to expect.

Andrea Niggli: Yeah! Being in the parade is far different than watching the parade. It’s an experience all on its own. It’s a great experience, so we’re happy that X101 is doing it and that you get to do it with us this year.

John Harrison: Yeah, we’re really excited. Now, for our listeners at home—maybe someone’s brand new to town or they don’t know—you want to tell us a little bit about what the Dairy Parade is, what it means, and where it’s come from?

Andrea Niggli: Yeah. So, the Dairy Parade has been going on for almost 60 years. There’s been a couple of years where we’ve had to cancel because of elements that have caused us to, right? But we’re going on around 60 years, and the purpose of it was to promote the dairy industry. Cortland County has a great agricultural proponent here, and the dairy industry is something to be proud of, which is why this got started 60 years ago. We have a great Dairy Ambassador program that goes alongside this, and it’s a way for us to promote our ambassadors. It’s a way for us to promote the dairy industry in and around Cortland, and it’s a great avenue for community members to get involved, for business owners to get involved… it’s just a great time for people to come and watch and see what Cortland has to offer.

John Harrison: Right, yeah, of course. And now, for start times and what people can expect—I know we’re looking at around Tuesday, 6:30 PM, is that correct?

Andrea Niggli: Tuesday, 6:30 PM, parade starts on the corner of Grant and Main Street. All along Main Street to Homer Ave, and then all of Homer Ave is a great spot to sit. There’s plenty of places that you can sit along the way. Anyone back further than Arthur might miss some of the floats that go through, so we do recommend going from Grant and beyond just so you can see all the floats that do come through. 6:30 on the dot.

John Harrison: Yeah, and speaking of all those floats, we were chatting a little bit before—it seems like we have broken last year’s number of floats coming up, right?

Andrea Niggli: Yeah! We’re expecting 85, maybe a little bit more. We always have a few stragglers that come in at the last minute, but we’re at 85, 86, somewhere right in there, which is 10 more than we had last year. So this is exciting! This is huge for us, this is great.

John Harrison: Yeah, it’s incredible. It’s going to be so cool… I was about to say so cool getting to watch the procession of the floats, but I’ll be in it! So I’ll be looking through the rearview and making sure the float behind me is looking good, and I’m sure the tailgate of the float ahead of us will look real nice.

Andrea Niggli: And the nice thing is, is you do get to line up a little bit early, so you can go around and watch and look at some of the other floats too, because you will miss some of them being in the parade, right? But there is time once you get lined up to go and visit some of the other businesses. There’s quite a few businesses that are partaking, schools… we have Baldwinsville Marching Band coming down and joining us this year. Cortland, Homer, McGraw, Moravia Marching Bands… it’s great listening to them, it’s great seeing them come out and the numbers that they’re able to bring out.

John Harrison: Yeah, and just the staggering amount of support, right? 86 floats are all coming out for this awesome time. It’s going to be so awesome.

Andrea Niggli: It’s going to be great! The weather’s going to be beautiful, I’m sure of it. But it is rain or shine! We do specify that: it is rain or shine. But it’s going to be beautiful, fingers crossed.

John Harrison: Yeah, definitely going to be beautiful. I mean, we’re past the hump of Memorial Day, right? We’re in pre-summer right now, so the weather is great.

Andrea Niggli: It has to be! Yes, absolutely. I do think I checked in, I think it was maybe in the 60s, which is perfect parade weather. So, you can’t ask for anything nicer.

John Harrison: Exactly where we want it to be. Well, Andrea, before we start to kind of wrap things up, anything else about the parade, about the work you’ve been putting into it, the other volunteers and member of the chair… anything else you want to say?

Andrea Niggli: Yeah. So, there’s a great committee that works together. Tess Southern works alongside me and we do all of these things together. I encourage everyone after the parade to head to the fairgrounds, which is where the parade ends, but the program doesn’t stop there. We have a coronation of sorts for our Dairy Ambassadors; that’s where we will give the title of our next Dairy Ambassador. And that’s after the parade, so we will give all of the parade results, because we do give awards for four categories. And then after that, we will introduce all of our new Dairy Ambassadors. So I encourage anybody that’s going to watch the parade, or if you’re a participant in the parade, to stick around afterwards. We’ll get you out of there early time, but it is nice to see that, and that’s what this really is about: promoting the dairy industry, promoting our Dairy Ambassadors, giving them a moment to introduce themselves and to identify with the community there. So, we encourage everyone to stick around and be there for the girls that are coming forward.

John Harrison: Yeah, well, I’m looking forward to it. Me and Scott are going to have so much fun driving the X101 van.

Andrea Niggli: I’m sure you are! I’m so excited.

John Harrison: Well, Andrea, thanks so much for joining me this morning.

Andrea Niggli: Yeah, thanks for having me! I appreciate it.

John Harrison: Yeah, of course! And everyone, again, that’s going to be Tuesday, right around 6:30, come on out for the Cortland County Dairy Parade. And for everyone listening at home, it’s been John Harrison on X101.