By Andrew Edwards
Photo: Loryanna Satterlund and family w/ Mayor Bill Gillespie
It’s been a strange year for a lot of things, as the coronavirus has forced many events to either be cancelled or swapped to a virtual platform.
The city of Prattville got creative this year and changed the traditional Mardi Gras celebration to a more CDC approved affair.
It was decided months ago that the city would celebrate “Yardi Gras”, which eliminated the annual parade and implemented a contest where different houses in Prattville could decorate their yard for a shot at the “Best of Yardi Gras Award”.
At the Tuesday city council meeting, Prattville Mayor Bill Gillespie announced that Loryanna Satterlund and her family were the winners of the 2021 award.
“We would like to congratulate the Satterlund family for winning this award, and for going all out as we celebrated Mardi Gras here in Prattville,” Gillespie said. “We certainly missed the traditional atmosphere that the parade typically brings to this city, but we felt like we didn’t miss a beat as we had a very successful Yardi Gras contest in its’ stead.”
Gillespie says that the city would love to continue the contest moving forward, and that the reasoning for creating it in the first place was due to past success in other holidays.
“We really love lighting up and decorating the town for all the different holiday seasons. Since we couldn’t do the normal celebration – it felt like the perfect opportunity to continue that holiday atmosphere,” Gillespie said.
The city now turns their focus to the Arbor Day celebration that will be taking place this Saturday, Feb. 20th starting at 8 a.m. at Pratt Park.
