Wow! The Hearts Homes and Hands team and our friends sure had a fun and exhausting time yesterday getting ready to participate in our very first Cameron Christmas parade. Even more fun was the parade itself.
During the week, Kathleen and Mandi, who is our Hermit Haus Redevelopment admin and friend, made lots of signs for the float, so once Lee and Kathleen very carefully got the thing down to our office, we finished decorating it. We added more and more lights, which was good, because we hadn’t actually realized the parade is in the dark.
I think it was fun for everyone to be taping and arranging. Mandi and Kathleen had also wrapped up some empty boxes in festive paper and made a LOT (we thought) of goody bags with some candy and our Hearts Homes and Hands information on it. One box was open, so all the bags could ride along with us.
Mandi’s kids and her ex, Randy (he works on our “destruction” crew, renovating The Hermit Haus), also came, with guitars for us to wield on the float. We all put on hats and looked as festive as we could. Even Lee put on a red shirt. He and Vlassic staffed the truck.
We were followed by one of the Cameron fire trucks, and I suggested he make a lot of fire truck siren noises. Oh, why did I do that? I was practically deaf by the end of the parade, but secretly I enjoyed it.
The parade itself was a lot of fun. Can you believe there were 71 units in it? Kathleen and I waved, the kids banged on instruments, and Mandi and Randy passed out our goody bags, though one group sort of mobbed Mandi with the box and took most of them. I hope they enjoy our multiple business cards. (We needed to get rid of them anyway, because they had the wrong phone number on them.)
Once we were out of goody bags, there was just a lot of smiling and waving. My highlight was getting filmed for a music video, according to Casey Stanislaw. I wished I could actually PLAY a guitar.
While our float didn’t win anything, we had fun, according to all participants. We now know we need a lot more lights and props than we had, but then, in ONE day how many things can you build? Lee said a little kid pointed to the house on our float and said, “I want one of those!” Making a little kid happy made it all worthwhile!
If you have access to a small-town Christmas parade, do yourself a favor and go to it!