I love a parade

Part of my job at Reading Connetions, the adult literacy nonprofit where I work, is increasing public awareness of our agency and of the literacy problem in our community (and, really, nationwide): about 20% of adults in the US are functionally illiterate.

As a way of getting the word out about our existence, we entered a float in Greensboro’s annual holiday parade - it was tons of fun! We threw a wooden sleigh that one of my co-workers happens to own on a trailer, rented a Grinch costume and made a bunch of banners, and my buddies all pitched in to populate the float. It was tons of fun! I had no idea the parade was such a big deal - there must have been 10,000 people there! They had giant floating balloons, just like the Macy’s parade, and just ahead of us was a live nativity with real camels, donkeys, cows, goats, and sheep. (And people with pooper scoopers.) Anyhow, it was a fun time.