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Christmas came early for Lynne Holle and Kathryn Tilley who were named grand marshals of this year’s Christmas parade. 

At a joint meeting of the LaGrange-Troup Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Development Authority and Visit LaGrange, the groups were set to update their members on upcoming projects. However, to the surprise of Holle and Tilley, they also announced them as the 2024 grand marshals.

Connie Hensler, president of LTCC, introduced some guests to make the announcement. Three business leaders active in the chamber put on their best National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation impressions to share the news.

“We are really thrilled, and we appreciate all that you do with Visit LaGrange,” Hensler said.  “You do so much to promote this community.”

After the surprise, the actors returned to the role of chamber members to discuss the projects and initiatives in the city. 

John Westmoreland, Chairman of the LTCC Board, presented for the organization dressed in a bathrobe, a la Cousin Eddie. He told the room that the Chamber has seen 67 new members join so far this calendar year. 

Bill Hunnicutt, the executive director of the Downtown Development Authority discussed the needs of Downtown LaGrange. Namely, he discussed the necessity for another hotel within the downtown district. Hunnicutt said their next big initiative would be bringing a hotel to the area next to Wild Leap Brewery. While they are still looking for a hotel management company to run the business, preliminary plans for the LaGrange Hotel were shown to the group. More information on the hotel will be provided as it becomes available.

One of the grand marshals, Tilley, presented for Visit LaGrange. A similar presentation was given to the Commission earlier this year. In it Tilley produced the tourism revenue numbers for the past few years as well as the projected increase of over $2 million in revenue for 2023.