Highland Park parade shooting brings back painful memories in Waukesha of Christmas parade

Ben Schultz and Lydia Morrell, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
·4 min read

For the first time since the Waukesha Christmas parade tragedy last November, the Waukesha Xtreme Dance Team was back to dancing, smiling and enjoying a holiday parade.

Then, just after completing the Fourth of July parade route through downtown Waukesha, the news came.

About 75 miles south, in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, a gunman had fired on a parade not unlike their own. Ultimately, seven people died and dozens were injured.

"I was told about it right after we were done with a parade. A parent had approached us and told us and I was shocked,” said Sandy Feller, director of the dance team. “I mean it just brought back so many bad memories. I just couldn’t believe it was happening again.”

Feller had just finished leading her dancers by car through the parade, which was put on with the theme "Waukesha Strong."

“It was hard. I was driving the vehicle through the parade yesterday with our girls. You heard a lot of support," Feller said Tuesday. "I probably cried through the whole parade, but just looking in my rearview mirror and seeing all the girls smiles on their faces. Everyone did great yesterday."

Waukesha police stand near the MVB3X barriers, portable safety barriers capable of disabling vehicles as large as semi-tractors from sudden and unauthorized access to key points along the parade route during the Waukesha Memorial Day Parade in Waukesha on Monday, May 30, 2022. It’s the city’s first parade since the 2021 Christmas Parade tragedy.
Waukesha police stand near the MVB3X barriers, portable safety barriers capable of disabling vehicles as large as semi-tractors from sudden and unauthorized access to key points along the parade route during the Waukesha Memorial Day Parade in Waukesha on Monday, May 30, 2022. It’s the city’s first parade since the 2021 Christmas Parade tragedy.

Grannies 'know the trauma and pain'

For those involved in the Waukesha tragedy, all of this is still too fresh. And it will not go away soon, with an October trial set for Darrell Brooks, who is charged with driving an SUV into the Christmas parade participants. Six people died and more than 60 were injured; Brooks faces 83 charges.

A couple of months ago, the city hosted a Memorial Day parade. The city blocked off the route with MVB3X barriers, which are able to disable vehicles as large as semitrailers from reaching the parade route. Waukesha allocated more than $800,000 in federal relief to purchase the barriers.

The city used the barriers again in the 4th of July parade, in which more than two dozen groups participated.

Just one of the Xtreme Dance Team dancers was in both the Christmas and Fourth of July parades.

"She was nervous. But as we got moving in the parade, people were smiling and clapping and yelling for them," Feller said. "I think she just kind of forgot about it. It made her happy to see the support, I think."

Feller and the dance team plan on trying to respond to the way to support those affected by the Highland Park, Ill., shooting.

“We’re hoping that we can somehow get together with our Xtreme family and try to do something, somehow, to support the Highland Park families,” Feller said. “We’re hoping to be there because it was so similar.”

The Dancing Grannies, a beloved fixture at Wisconsin parades for decades, shared much the same sentiment on Facebook. The group lost three members and the husband of a fourth in the November parade.

"The Grannies are devastated to hear the news of the violence at the Highland Park July 4th parade," the Facebook post read. "We know the trauma and pain of losing loved ones to violence in what should be a joyful family event. We relive and feel the pain literally and figuratively after every mass tragedy ... Buffalo, Ulvalde ... the list goes on."

The posting said the group would meet soon to figure a way to support Highland Park. It was signed: "Grannie Strong....and now, sadly and needlessly, Highland Park Strong."

People gather in Waukesha's Cutler Park for a candlelight vigil on Monday, Nov. 22, for those affected by the Waukesha Christmas Parade tragedy.
People gather in Waukesha's Cutler Park for a candlelight vigil on Monday, Nov. 22, for those affected by the Waukesha Christmas Parade tragedy.

'I could put myself right back there'

Healing Hearts of Southeast Wisconsin, an organization that focuses on healing from grief, hosts a monthly "parade support" session, as well as one-on-one sessions.

Executive Director Melissa Minkley said the group is hosting an additional support session in July in response to the Highland Park parade shooting.

"It is very normal for an individual to be re-traumatized after they have a similar experience or incident taking place," Minkley said. She said it was not uncommon to have some of the same feelings — emotionally, cognitively, even physically.

Rev. Matthew Widder, pastor of the Catholic Community of Waukesha (St. John Neumann, St. William, St. Joseph and St. Mary), said that in the months since the Christmas parade, people have found healing by sharing their stories and meeting with other witnesses.

The school shootings in Uvalde, Tex., and now the shootings in Highland Park shooting bring all the pain back to the surface. Widder himself was in the Christmas parade, walking just ahead of the Dancing Grannies.

"It's the rawness of being back at the scene," Widder said. "There's been a lot of healing and love that's been poured out — and at the same time, there's that tension. Like when it happened yesterday, I could put myself right back there."

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Shootings at Highland Park parade reopen wounds of Waukesha tragedy