Enveiopes designated for Santa Claus parade * from DONATIONS on page 1 charity. Even if they wcere a legitimate charity Ms McKee pointed out they were still stealing, since they wsere accepting money handed to then in envelopes designated for the Santa Claus Parade. "1 asked them to leave twice, but they wouldn't leave," she said. "When I talked with the female and said, 'You have no authority to bc here she said she had per- mission from the parade chair. I said, "m the chair.' None of îhem would give me the money from their tins." Ms McKee said the incident certainly cast a pall over the parade, the eighth for which she's volunteered. She said she was expecting this parade to be her last one as co-chair. But not anymore. Ms McKee said she can't bear to end on a sour note. "I'm disheartened that this happened in Milton and that people thought they were giving to the parade," she said. "It really put a cloud over the parade. I love my parade. I was going to retire after this year, but l'l probably do one more." Ms McKee said she's in the midst of fil- ing a police report and is looking for the community's help. She's asking anyone at the parade who has a flyer from the fraud- ulent collectors, or a home video or photos of the scammers to e-mail her at lau- ranne62@hotmail.com. Det. Sgt. Don Cousens of Halton Regional Police said if the community gets involved, chances are pretty good the sus- pects can be caught. "We could do a sequential breakdown of who was collecting - but its got to be reported first," he said. Mr. Scherer said safeguards will be put in place to ensure the same thing doesn't hap- pen next year. Forunately, though the 'Bucket Brigade' is a chunk of the fundraising, it's not the largest portion. That comes through spon- sors and donations hefore the parade, Mr. Scherer said. "It's an important part of the fundraising, but it's not a critical part." And it's not all bad news. "The weather was disappointing, but it was one of the best parades ever," he said, adding there were ai least 2,0(0 parade par- ticipants and more than 70 entries. Sponsorships and donations were double those of last year. which Mr. Scherer attrib- uted to his October plea for Miltonians to give generously. More than $10,000 came through band sponsors and donations, he said. The parade will likely still incur a deficit about the amount suspected stolen - but not nearly the sevcra thousand dollar shorfall experienced last year, Mr. Scherer said. He said the parade committee's next step is to hecome an official non-protit group. Thi. se saidt. ws ill enable it to apply for cer- tain tfliancial ai'. intcludin" the Milton Comunit Fundt Stepl. umi l. inwuc , T Iun tuuh reaihed at sthniOu ninI) n/ta n /nal/lin t. nm