The plucky upstate sisters struck by a 30-pound light fixture at last year’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will fulfill their vow to attend this year’s holiday march with their family – and this time they’re doing it in style.
“We’ll be staying in a really nice hotel, and we’re sitting next to the boss of Macy’s, with a front-row view. The girls can’t believe their luck,” said Suzanne Chamberlain, mother of the two darlings who landed in the hospital after last year’s horrifying mishap.
“Everyone’s been wonderful.The city picked up the hospital bills, and Macy’s has invited us to celebrate every holiday with them since, including this one,” said Chamberlain, 47. “The girls are OK, and everyone has been nothing but nice.” Sarah, 12, and Mary, 26, of Albany, were cheering on the corner of 43rd and Broadway during last year’s parade when neartragedy struck.
Winds blew a giant M&M’s balloon into a light pole. The metal fixture crashed on Sarah’s head, fell to the ground and bounced into Mary, who has cerebral palsy and was, thankfully, protected by a tray attached to her wheelchair.
“I looked down at [Sarah], and she was covered in blood, and I started screaming,” Suzanne recalled. “I saw [the light fixture] coming straight for us, and there was nothing you could do.” Sarah received nine stitches to her head. Mary suffered only minor bruises.
The girls and their siblings Matthew, 13, and Cate, 9, got a welcome visit from both Santa and Mayor Bloomberg during the sisters’ stay at Bellevue Hospital.
“We are looking forward to going down and having a good time,” said father Stephen. “It was surprisingly quite an adventure – it’s a story they’re taking to their grandchildren.” The Chamberlains, whose experience was eerily similar to the 1997 parade light-pole accident that left a woman in a coma for a month, said they would never sue.
“The girls are fine.
They have only gotten pleasure out of the help that the city has provided us . . . There’s no need to sue,” said Stephen, 48.
Macy’s footed the cost of trips to the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall and the department store’s July 4 fireworks display.
“We love this city,” Stephen said.
This year, revelers can see the Chamberlains enjoying their front-row seat at the 34th Street grandstand.
On the march
Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (9 a.m. to noon) begins at 77th and Central Park West, turns onto Broadway at Columbus Circle and ends in Herald Square. The parade features:
* 10,000 marchers
* 12 giant balloons
* 6 new floats, including Charlotte’s Web, Mother Goose and Woodstock’s flight-control HQ at Snoopy’s doghouse
* 9 marching bands
* 2 new giant balloons – Pikachu and Flying Ace Snoopy
* 33 floats
* 1,200 dancers
* 800 clowns