“Christmas, my child, is love in action. Every time we love,
every time we give, it’s Christmas.”
Dale
Evans
|
About a hundred pounds of stuffed animals |
‘Twas
the night before the Augusta Christmas parade when all through my
house, not a creature was stirring except on elf packing up all the
stuffed animals that have been collected over the last three years.
My home was overflowing with stuffed animals. I laid out some on
my bed and it is hard to see but there are actual layers of stuffed
animals on display. Along with stuffed animals, there was a couple
bags of donated happy meal gifts, glow sticks, small books, plastic
footballs, and glow in the dark throw toys. I love how generous the
people of Augusta are. We are thrilled to be finally back in
business. This is the first Christmas parade in Augusta since 2019
since the pandemic and then last year it got rained out. We
couldn’t be happier it is finally happening.
|
Crutch, Beth, Birkie, Vince, Joe, Mike |
|
Crutch, Beth, Birkie, Vince, Heather, Mike |
The
back story of this parade each year is during the year, we try to
collect as many donated stuffed animals and candy for the kiddos as
possible to give to the children watching the parade. We collect
from our neighborhoods and friends. Our hope is to give each and
every child a stuffed animal or small gift to love on. You can’t
believe how priceless it is seeing a young one get a special stuffed
animal, hug it, and proudly show their mom and dad exclaiming “Mom,
look what I got.” Both the children and the parents are grateful
and will say “Thank you and Merry Christmas.” It will soften
even the hardest of hearts. I must give a shout out and thank
everyone who donated stuffed animals for this cause. It couldn’t
be more appreciated.
We
sprang out of bed to get ready for the day. Looking outside we see
it is foggy and stormy looking. Joe and I loaded up all our animals
and headed to our friends, Birkie and Carol Ayers house to prepare
the truck for the parade. As we head downtown we see the low clouds
hanging over the city but we are hoping Santa is on our side and
keeps the rain away till after the parade. There is much to do before
the parade starts. The Olde Town Neighborhood Group was ready to
ride on EZ, (firetruck) which is the vehicle that helps us enjoy all
these events.
|
Let the decorating begin |
In a
flash, we cleaned it up, decorated EZ and the trailer, and Birkie and
Weston worked on the batteries getting everything prepared for
putting on the lights. Barry came by with the lights to give a hand
in making the firetruck and trailer look so festive. Then the
trailer was loaded full of toys and in a twinkling, we were ready to
head to the parade. It is still stormy looking and just misting a
bit. Santa be with us.
|
Relaxing before the big event |
With
a twinkle in Birkie’s eyes and a wink, he loaded us up on the
truck and we were off to our staging site. We found out that we were
the third from the last in the parade and close to Santa Claus who
was the last entry. His firetruck arrived playing “Here comes
Santa Claus.” The entries were amazing this year with beautiful
floats, an amazing Corvette club with about 20 Corvettes, bands from
Richmond County, and so much more.
It
was nice to see the efforts people put into the floats and decorating
their vehicles. It was also nice talking with everyone and seeing
how excited they were about being there. Parades are always the
best and the Christmas parade if my favorite. This parade was a
night parade so seeing all the Christmas lights twinkling on the
floats and all along Broad Street was awesome.
|
Ready for the parade to start |
Just
after 6 pm, our truck starting slowly moving down Broad Street. The
crowds started to build and we soon found out that more people were
needed to walk on the side of the truck to hand out stuffed animals
and keep the kids away from it. Joe and I jumped down off the truck
and went running. This was our first time to walk and give gifts
and will not be our last. What a blast.
|
Our crews proud of our accumulation of stuffed animals. |
Bundles
of toys were flung in the trailer and now we were ready to start
handing these stuffed animals out to kids and watch them light up
when they got one. Talk about getting in the Christmas spirit.
This was it.
|
Heather handing out stuffed animals |
Walking
down through the crowds, child after child got a stuffed animal till
our pile of animals was gone. Then more candy went out to the kids
as well as glow sticks. Even with all we had collected, we could
have used more as we ran out before the end of the parade. Well,
there is always next year.
|
Courtney and Josh |
|
Carol |
|
Beth and Francis |
|
Heather and Joe |
|
Deborah and Birkie |
|
Chuck and Nancy |
This
is a tradition we have been doing with our friends for years. It is
a great way to socialize and donate to the children of Augusta.
Carol and Deborah made sandwiches for us, Birkie ordered chicken
wings along with chips, and blonde brownies. On the side of the
firetruck was a small keg of beer for our group.
|
Josh and Courtney |
|
Waiting for the parade to begin with all our toys. |
Santa
held the rain off and we eternally grateful. We had a lovely
evening and went home with a full heart. We missed some of our
friends who couldn’t be with us and look forward to next year when
they can return. As we headed back to Olde Town, we exclaimed:
“Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.”
|
The Olde Town Crew. They are the best. |
Till
next time. Bye for now.
That was a great read!! We love EZ the fire truck.
ReplyDeleteThank you. It is a great toy for us all to enjoy.
ReplyDelete