Grand Marshall

Carl served as president of the Orion Area Chamber of Commerce over 20 years ago when the Parade Group broke off to form the current non-profit Orion Area Parade Group.  Back then, the parade was held during the daylight hours and unfortunately was not well-attended.  Carl discovered that there was a night time parade in Howell, MI and contacted them to see how they coordinated it.  After learning that they provided power inverters to the participants so that they could plug them into their car's cigarette lighter, he took on the initiative of helping to make it happen in Lake Orion.  He contacted Neil Porter, the owner of Vette Products, from whom he purchased the inverters, allowing parade participants to run lights on their vehicles and floats.  The nighttime Lighted Parade was an immediate success.  More and more groups and people joined the parade and as time went on they started using their own generators to provide more lights and incorporated music into their floats.  Today we have over 80 parade entries in the Orion Lighted Christmas Parade.  

Carl has lived in Lake Orion for over 30 years running his real estate business and has the honor of being the Grand Marshall of the very parade he helped start!  He has been involved in many other community events over the years having enjoyed being a part of this great community in Lake Orion!