Handicapped Group Left Out of Parade--Too Slow for TV

DETROIT — A group of 200 handicapped children and adults has been cut from this year’s Thanksgiving parade in an effort by parade officials to speed up the annual procession for national television coverage.

Last year, the handicapped group, some of them in wheelchairs and on crutches, paraded behind the Detroit Police Mounted Patrol. The group also included deaf and blind people and some who were mentally retarded.

Kevin Feldman, leader of the handicapped group, said he is upset by the decision. “We apparently are not wanted and this has been very disappointing to the young people who have been looking forward to the event since last Thanksgiving,” he said.

Thomas P. Adams, chairman of the Michigan Thanksgiving Parade Foundation, said he was unaware that the handicapped group had been cut from this year’s parade. But he said that reducing the number of participants from last year’s 25 floats, 22 marching bands and 1,000 marchers was necessary for the parade’s survival.

“We invited everyone who wanted to march to join in last year,” he said. “We were criticized by (CBS) for the slowness and we decided the parade was too long and uncontrollable.”