Alive in lights: A look into what it takes for RTD to participate in one of the region's largest parades

When it comes to parades around the metro area, few are more prestigious than the 9News Parade of Lights in downtown Denver. For over three decades, the Parade of Lights has been a staple of the holiday season. The event draws hundreds of thousands of attendees from across the region each year to watch and cheer as marchers walk alongside extravagant floats and vehicles. For a third consecutive year, RTD showcased its Winter Parade Bus, which was illuminated in bright holiday colors as it rolled through the streets with RTD staff and Board Directors.

For those attending the spectacle of the Parade of Lights, it may appear that RTD’s participation was as simple as stringing LED lights around the exterior of a bus and affixing big speakers to the front for employees to dance and cheer to the music as they march. For RTD’s Community Engagement team, which runs point on RTD’s participation in parades, that could not be further from reality.

Community Engagement Manager Brandon Figliolino leads the agency’s parade efforts, ensuring RTD is well represented in every event.

“I oversee all aspects of parade participation planning with the support of my amazing teammates,” Figliolino said. “While a parade march may take just a few hours to complete, it takes many months of preparation to ensure our participation is strong and that employees have a great experience.”

Figliolino’s work has helped RTD appear in major parades across the region, including the Vizzy Denver Pride Parade, National Western Stock Show Parade, the Martin Luther King Jr. Marade, and the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

Figliolino has been part of 14 parades during his RTD tenure. To him, participation reflects RTD’s connection to the community.

“There is something electrifying when you march down the street and hear crowds of people cheering ‘R-T-D! R-T-D,’” he said. “It shows that, despite the agency’s challenges, there are many, many customers and community members who support us and know we provide a valuable service to the metro area.”

After being promoted to manager of the team in 2023, Figliolino set his sights on securing RTD’s spot in the annual 9News Parade of Lights.

“I saw the Parade of Lights as a creative way to reach hundreds of thousands of parade watchers, whether in person, on TV, or through a livestream,” he said. “Our message was simple: whether you are staying local for the holidays or heading out of town, RTD’s network of buses and trains helps customers get around.”

Planning for RTD’s role in this year’s parade began in early 2024 with budgeting and funding approvals. Once secured, Figliolino and his team of Youth Engagement Specialist Taylor Curtis and Community Engagement Specialist Gabriel Martinez began conceptualizing themes for the parade bus and outlining logistics.

In April, as many around the region were ditching their coats and beanies for tank tops and shorts, the team was already thinking about winter again, working with the agency’s General Counsel team and the Downtown Denver Partnership to review and submit participation agreements.

Once approved, attention turned to identifying the bus wrap theme and designing the wrap and matching holiday apparel for employees.

“Our collaboration with Marketing began in June,” Curtis said. “The team held a design contest. The review panel chose Graphic/Web Designer Ross Hoekman’s design for the bus wrap and accompanying sweaters and beanies.”

With designs underway, Figliolino worked with Marketing Communications Specialist Ashlyn Whitford and Bus Operations to secure a parade bus and operator, identify dates for installation of the special holiday wrap and lights, and day-of logistics, such as routes and service orders.

“There were a lot of people involved in getting the bus secured for the parade,” Curtis said. “A special service bus request was submitted first, then Bus Operations worked on getting an operator assigned to drive the bus through the parade route, as well as a street supervisor assigned to provide support.”

As operational details solidified, Community Engagement began meeting sponsorship requirements established by the Downtown Denver Partnership.

“The Downtown Denver Partnership, the organizer of the parade, provided RTD with a sponsorship checklist,” Figliolino said. “It required RTD to submit parade participant numbers, social media channels, and proof of insurance by established deadlines throughout the fall, among other deliverables.”

Beginning in August, Community Engagement worked with Media Relations, Internal Communications, and Marketing on internal and external communications, including a social media campaign led by Digital Communications Specialist Caroline Story and a series of news releases outlining RTD’s involvement and service impacts. Internally, Figliolino coordinated with Internal and Executive Communications Manager Laurie Huff and Senior Specialist, Public Relations Austin Nettleton to recruit employees to march alongside the parade bus using the agency’s internal channels, including Inside Connections and the Hot Sheet.

As summer gave way to fall, the pressure was on to get the final pieces of the puzzle in place before the Dec. 6 parade.

In late November, installation of Hoekman’s gingerbread-themed wrap was completed, transforming the parade bus into a gingerbread house, complete with candies, gingerbread people, and animals, and an RTD logo styled as a delicious sugar cookie. Days before the event, Body Shop Supervisor Lorenzo Washington and his team added LED strips around the entire chassis of the parade bus and installed a custom-built speaker platform that was fabricated in house.

On parade day, Curtis arrived at District Shops to meet employees, with some dressed in costumes and others wearing RTD holiday sweaters from years past. Operator Larry Maldonado was awarded the honor of driving this year’s parade bus. Twenty-two employee marchers, five young family members of RTD employees, and three RTD Board directors – Chair Julien Bouquet and directors Michael Guzman and Kathleen Chandler – boarded the bus for the trip to the staging area near the Denver Art Museum.

Once the parade began, Nettleton played a curated holiday playlist through the speakers that were mounted on the bus. The playlist featured a medley of holiday staples and deep cuts, performed by artists over a wide range of genres from pop to metal. Of course, it is the holidays, and no holiday celebration is complete without DMX’s rendition of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”

For two miles, RTD employees danced, high-fived attendees, and celebrated with the crowd of over 200,000 spectators. Maldonado greeted parade-goers through the bus’ public address system with Santa-themed messages, while street supervisor Marta Lovato stole the show by marching the entire route in an inflatable dinosaur costume, dancing, interacting with the crowd, and jumping into selfie after selfie.

Though the parade lasted just over an hour, it reflected more than a year of coordination across RTD.

“So many little things went into making sure our team was ready to represent RTD,” Curtis said. “We confirmed and coordinated RTD staff participants, pulled the holiday sweaters and swag for each of them, affixed lights to our parade signs, changed batteries in lights for our necklaces and banner, and made sure we had the supplies our people needed to be comfortable, like waters and hand warmers.”

While many people came together to make the parade a success, Curtis praised bus operator Wallace Lankster for going above and beyond.

"Wallace was instrumental in making sure we got the parade bus safely moved into each new staging position,” she said. “Throughout the parade, he helped Larry squeeze through tight turns and helped to make room along the route when parade spectators were spilling into the street.“

"After getting everyone loaded up on the bus at the end of the parade, Wallace noticed there were still hundreds of people watching along after the official route had ended,” Curtis added. “He stayed outside the bus, guided Larry through the chaos, and made sure that, despite the lack of barricades after the official parade route ended, everyone watching was a safe distance away from the bus.”

The biggest takeaway of all for Curtis was everyone coming together, taking time out of their busy schedules throughout the year to make RTD’s participation in the Parade of Lights a reality.

“It was such a beautiful display of all our people working together to create a meaningful experience for our community,” she said. “I am so lucky to be here and to work with such incredible people.”