The old saying goes, “It takes a village to raise a child” and that will be the case for the Fortieth Annual Christmas on the River celebration.

In a departure from years past, the Demopolis Area Chamber of Commerce has elected to forgo a formal COTR chairperson this year and will rely largely on the work of the many committees that put the event together annually.

“There’s been a lot of good ideas floated around already,” chamber director Jenn Tate said of the event that is less than six months away. “We’re looking forward to celebrating 40 years of COTR.”

While much of the event’s legwork is well underway, Tate said the Chamber was still in need of a chairperson for the day parade.

“We just need someone to help Kirk (Brooker) organize the efforts to paint and fix the floats,” she said. “There’s already help in place, we just need someone to organize it and keep it in order.”

Tate also said she hoped to see another groundswell of support this year that mirrored last, as the city sets its sites on a COTR milestone.

“Last year was great with RockTenn and Greene County Steam Plant building two new floats,” she said. “What we’d like to see is other local business or organizations stepping up to make the fortieth year just as special.”

This year’s grand marshall will be Demopolis-native and current Los Angeles Laker Theo Ratliff.