APS’ Largest Light Parade in History Features Waggin’ Wheels

For the past seven years, the Arizona Humane Society’s Education and Outreach (E&O) Team has been behind our organization’s most colorful and festive annual appearance: the APS Light Parade. The event, which has been running for 36 years, celebrated its largest parade to date on Saturday, December 2, and AHS’ Waggin’ Wheels mobile adoption unit was a fixture of the holiday celebration in all its sparkly glory.

AHS acquired Waggin’ Wheels over a decade ago, allowing us to reach millions of pet lovers in our community since it first hit the road. Oftentimes, potential pet owners can be apprehensive about coming to an animal shelter to adopt, but Waggin’ Wheels allows us to attend community events like the APS Light Parade where attendees can get to know their new furry family members in a different setting.

According to Shelby Brose, AHS’ Senior Manager of E&O, the process behind getting Waggin’ Wheels decked out with enough lights to truly shine during the parade takes a village of helping hands. Roughly a dozen Humane Teens, who are enrolled in our unique youth leadership program of the same name, dedicate an entire four-hour shift to helping our E&O staff put up the lights one week prior to the parade.

“Having the Teens assistance is incredibly helpful as this project used to be done by just myself and a few friends and family,” Brose said. “It would take us roughly 12 hours to put us half the number of lights!”

For anyone 14-17 years of age interested in joining next year, AHS will be opening applications for our spring semester of Humane Teens in the next week! The program is perfect for gaining mentorship, leadership and career discovery experience as well as accruing service hours.

“Each year, we have folks shouting that they love AHS and the work we do, and we hear chants of ‘thank you!’ and ‘I got my dog from you!’ every step of the two-mile parade route,” Brose added. “This event provides us a way to engage our community, showcase the joy of pets and inspire folks to think about ways they can help pets and people this holiday season.”