Pick Parade Link We made the local news as one of the lead stories. I was busy from before 8:30 a.m. till about 7:00 p.m. getting setup, registering participants, rounding up pickups, and then driving in the parade. It was LONG day. Not what I'm usually up to my angelic sister lovingly provided dinner for us and it was more than a tender mercy it was manna straight from heaven.
The last planning meeting the organizer suggested a lemonade stand. I offered up my children thinking of a fun book they had read this summer the
Lemonade Wars. Small towns don't afford many opportunities for kids to make money selling things on the corner. I thought this would be a fun and perfect venue for them to learn a little selling and people skills. So I hurried to the store bought 24 cans of frozen lemonade 200 cups, 180 Popsicles and 8 cases of water. The next day after washing pickups we headed to the local ice dealer and bought 150 lbs of ice and headed home. Thank goodness we had bought a new freezer a few weeks ago we needed it. I sketched out posters and the kids painted them and we went to bed in preparation for the BIG day. I took John from the calve working party, and we headed to town to get set up. After some time registering and delivering supplies to the staging area for the parade we went to a friends and made lemonade and got as much water in ice as we could.
They too were answers to worried prayers as I didn't know how I would manage running kids, caring for little kids, and keeping an eye on kids. She had graciously volunteered to help and her kids sold for a few hours while I drove shuttle for getting pickups to Vale. I as even able to come home for half an hour and send out more texts, rest, and pickup the babysitting girls. They had been worried they would miss all the selling opportunity but the real selling started in the last hour and half while people were waiting and cooking like ants under a magnifying glass on that hot afternoon. They ended up with over $200.00 which we split amongst the kids. Not bad for a day. And more importantly they talked to strangers they helped adults carry water, get registered, ran errands, and were good smaller citizens.
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| The stand with our friends manning it |
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| Johns picture en route to the pickup parade |
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| My selfie waiting for my turn to go in the parade. |
The last 40 minutes were the craziest from 4:45-5:20 people just rolled in, there had been a steady stream all day but that last hurrah is what pushed us over the top. It was pretty awesome to see that many people in Vale and that much community spirit. I don't think many pickups were from far away but were just pulled out of use for an hour or so to come make world news. Silly, safe, legal fun in a small town. I think we meaning Greg, his parents, my parents, siblings and some friends contributed 15 pickups to the effort. Many others brought down multiple pickups as well. We are the West we use our pickups daily and have them in assorted shapes, colors, conditions. All in all it was a once in a lifetime experience that was good.
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| Parading |
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