Her Royal Highness Jill Conner Browne and the Sweet Potato Queens® have officially announced that they will be bringing their parade to the historic neighborhood of Fondren.   Set for the weekend of March 24-26 of next year, the Queens and Wanabees® will march upon the artsy community bringing their support for their beloved charity, the Blair E. Batson Hospital for Children at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.  The new Zippity-Doo-Dah Festival® will not only include the much anticipated marching of the Sweet Potato Queensâ„¢ but also will expand this year to include a Kid’s Festival and the Vixen Run — a modern variation on the Spanish “running of the bulls”.  Fondren organizations are joining together to promote and develop planning strategies for the festival weekend.  The Queen herself has even further involved all of her more than 6,000 SPQ Wanabee® chapters in a yearlong fundraising effort for the Batson Hospital with the winning chapter riding on the Queen’s Float.  In order to encourage a more pedestrian friendly parade, Queen Jill has declared that there will only be one large float for the SPQ’s and the winning fundraising SPQ Wanabee® Chapter.  The remaining floats will be anything that can be highly decorated from wagons to bicycles with all proceeds going to Blair Batson Hospital.  Long live the Queen and long live Fondren!

Originally written for Fondren Renaissance Foundation's Winter News