APPLETON, Wis. — With daylight quickly fading, Chris McCoy worked to put some of the final touches on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-themed float created by employees at the Nestle Freedom Distribution Center.

“We look forward to this every year. It’s a chance for us to get away from the grind and do something different,” he said.

The float was part of the 50th edition of the Appleton Downtown Christmas Parade held Tuesday night.

It included McCoy and his coworkers.

“This way we’re in the middle of things, everybody is waving at us, it’s pretty neat,” he said about the experience of driving down College Avenue pulling the float behind him.

After organizers and law enforcement spent part of Monday reviewing plans, the  parade went ahead on schedule. The procession included a silent tribute to the community, victims and families of the Waukesha tragedy in which six people died and nearly 50 people were injured.

McCoy said his group was just a little more cautious after Sunday's incident.

“We have some people walking, so we told them to just keep a lookout for anything, but I plan on it going smoothly as normal,” he said.

Spectators, like Abbie Dench of Appleton, said they felt comfortable at the event and showed up hours early to get a spot along the route.

“We got here today about 4 p.m. to get our spot so we’d hopefully get to see the parade,” said Dench, who brought her son, Carter, to the parade. “The last time we were here we were so far back we didn’t even get to see it.”

McCoy was looking forward to the little things about the event.

“Just the parade - and the float not falling apart,” he said with a laugh. “I had a big hand in building it, so you never know.”

Spoiler alert: The float appeared to be working just fine during the parade.