PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (WMBB) —- Saturday morning Panama City’s Shaddai Shriners held their annual initiation parade on Front Beach Road.
“We did a ceremonial parade for all of our candidates,” Panama City’s Shaddai Shriners member Anthony Brogdon said. “Candidates are the guys that are pledging to be into the Shriners. Some of them were in baby outfits. Some of them rode a Ferris wheel. And some of them just just whatever they had to do to get into the shrine unit.”
This year Panama City’s chapter had five candidates.
“It’s kind of like our initiation into the shrine,” Candidate Issac Smith said. “We all participated in different ways.”
Shaddai Shriners is a long-standing international organization that came to Panama City in July 1985.
The group seeks to help families of children who are suffering from various conditions or injuries.
“That needs special needs. We try to take care of them where their family has to pay no money for there to be repaired, their limbs Orthopedics, burn victims, “Brogdon said.
Panama City’s Shriners currently support around 40 children in Bay County and surrounding communities.
“We take care of the kids,” Candidate Jay Eory said. “We make the kids smile. The kids are our future. The kids are our life.”
The Shriners use the parade to make the community more aware of their organization and the work they do.
This year’s candidates made a lasting impression on the community.
Click here for more information on the Panama City Shaddai Shriners.
