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Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Swiss Days parade

 The theme for this year's Swiss Days parade was "Flood, Mud, and Helping Hands". 
It is hard to believe it has been a year since our little community flooded when a nearby decrepit dike broke leaving 45 homes damaged. Hundreds of volunteers joined in the clean up effort and the experience brought our community even closer together.

David and I sponsored two parade entries and helped with a third.  It was a busy couple of weeks as we put together all the logistics.

One of the parade entries featured Nataleigh and her "Scooter Girls".  The 12 girls each picked a word they thought represented what they learned from the flood.  One of the hardest hit houses belong to Nataleigh's girlfriend.  Her bedroom was in the basement and everything she owned was ruined. It made a big impact on these 8 & 9 year old girls to watch their friend go through this tragedy and to help however they could.

(Hailey Hill pictured far left with "Brave")
David got each of the girls a bike helmet cover.  They are adorable!







These mommies were a big help putting everything together from getting the matching pink t-shirts, to writing and glittering the signs, to throwing candy from the golf cart behind the scooters


In addition to our Scooter Girls' entry, Willy and Kathryn Camp (my dynamic duo neighbors) organized a parade entry composed of our neighborhood kids--and some friends.  We all had red t-shirts and added our handprint, name, and age. The paraders rode their electric cars or rode in the barrel train that Willy pulled behind his golf cart.

 Jacob had a blast!  
We have had such hard times with him and parades in the past.  Who would have ever thought he's make it through?  It helped that he was driving his own blue truck: one of his favorite past times, and that he had a task to do: distribute candy.  He was very methodical in giving EVERYONE candy and making sure they got the right handful.  He was totally out of candy by the first third of the parade. That made him a little nervous, but I gently reminded him to keep driving...and to focus on not running over anyone!


We handed out pounds and pounds of candy!

It was a perfect parade, the kind that every small town celebrates.  One City Councilwoman said to me,
 "It doesn't get any better than this!"  Couldn't be more true.  Its these kinds of traditions that makes our communities strong. 

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