Putnam County residents to appear in Chicago's Thanksgiving parade

Elizabeth and Richard Shafer of Bainbridge, along with horse Cantador, will represent the Greencastle McDonald's at Thursday's McDonald's Thanksgiving Parade in Chicago. The parade can be seen on WGN.

Putnam County residents Richard and Elizabeth Shaefer of Hope's Way in Bainbridge will have a very special Thanksgiving this year, as they travel to the Chicago for the McDonald's Thanksgiving Parade.

The Shafers will travel to the parade representing the Greencastle McDonald's. McDonalds of Greencastle is proudly sponsoring the Shafers and their horse Cantador in the Chicago parade.

After many years of cooking turkey, Elizabeth Shafer has discovered that she would rather ride her horse than cook. Elizabeth is a charter member of the Red Hats and Purple Chaps and when not working with the children of Hope's Way, she can often be found riding or training with the equine performing group of "Galloping Grannies."

This Red Hat group is fast becoming well known and loved by parade watchers in Indiana and surrounding states. They have also performed at the Indiana State Fair, Indiana Horse Fair and in many other parades. For the past three years the group has been invited to ride in the Kentucky Derby Parade in Louiville, Ky.

Richard Shafer, known as "Cowboy Rick" by the children of Hope's Way, often works parades as a volunteer wrangler to be sure his wife is safe and is handy just in case any of the other "grannies" need assistance.

The McDonald's Thanksgiving Parade is telecast live on WGN and is available to approximately 72 million households on cable and dish TV. Approximately 400,000 people will line the parade route in Chicago to watch the fun.

Turkey or Parade? For the Shafers it was an easy choice.