Officials with the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce said Friday, that their “Scrooge” contest, which serves to raise funds and collect non-perishable good for the Atlantic Food Pantry, is over, and the winner of this year’s contest is Melanie Petty, representing the Trevor Frederickson Memorial Fund, who collected 6,367 donations.  Oddly enough, her donations represented the lowest cash total of all the candidates, with 6,017 of her points coming from food items. Each food item counts as one unit and each dollar counts as one unit. Overall, the Scrooge contest brought in a total of 17,542 donation units. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans donated supplemental funds to each candidate for the benefit of the food pantry.

Atlantic’s 12th Scrooge will take her place at the head of the Lighted Christmas Parade on Saturday (Dec. 1st) at 6 p.m. on Chestnut Street. Petty will be leading Saturday’s lighted parade as Grand Marshal on the Wal-Mart sponsored float. The other four Scrooge candidates (Frank Rizzo, Mark Jacobsen, Greg Franken and Bruce Kreutzer) will also be featured behind her in a limousine. Eleanor Hoover, Scrooge contest coordinator, said many thanks go out to the five candidates for their tireless efforts in the contest which benefits the Atlantic Food Pantry and many community members throughout the whole year.

Prior to the parade on Saturday, there will be carriage rides, Santa will be in his cabin at the City Park, from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., and there will be living window displays, which are available for viewing beginning at 5-p.m., in downtown Atlantic.