Parade

It's taken me awhile, but I've finally figured out how to take kids to a parade and not end up with buckets overflowing with candy. You put the kids IN the parade.

Sydney had her choice between three floats: she could walk with her dance class, walk with the student athlete association, or ride on our church's float. She proudly wore her soccer shirt, prepared to walk with all the other kids who are involved in sports. But at the last minute she wised up, figuring out it'd be much easier to ride instead of walk the parade route.  And so instead she sat with the other kids from vacation bible school and practiced her princess wave.

For AJ, the dilemma wasn't which float to part of, but rather which sport to represent as he walked with the student athlete association. He settled on two: wearing his baseball hat and hockey jersey.

So what exactly is the student athlete association? It's a group of students that officially doesn't have a mission yet. Unofficially, it's a student-led group that will work to get a referendum passed in November to fund the rebuilding of all the sports facilities that were destroyed in June by the flood. But the school board won't vote until later this month to seek a referendum, which is why the group can't outright say what it's about.

So instead, we walked to show just how many kids - from elementary to high school - are involved in sports activities.

AJ is #27 on the right, in front of the girl in the yellow shirt.

AJ did manage to pick up some candy as he walked, but most of the time he'd simply pass it along to the next person he saw along the route.

With so many kids walking in the parade there weren't too many left as spectators.

I'm not overly optimistic that a referendum will pass. Still, it felt good to be part of this unofficial lobbying effort.

It's so ironic for me to be part of this. In high school, my loyalty was always to the speech and drama clubs, to the point I was jealous of the attention and funding that went to athletics. But now that I see how much fun  my kids have playing soccer, hockey and baseball, I can't help but want to give them the opportunity, fields and facilities so that they can be active.