Sunday, December 2, 2012

Christmas in the Park Parade

Since last Memorial Day when I first came across a post on Facebook about wear blue:run to remember out of Dupont I have been running for our Fallen. We meet once a month in Yelm our town to run or walk as many miles as we can to honor the memory of those who have given the ultimate sacrifice. It shows their families we won't forget as well as that we can run while they can't anymore.

Yesterday in Yelm was the annual Christmas in the Park put on by the chamber of commerce. One of my friends who has been running with me since Memorial Day had the idea to go ask a couple months back if our Wear Blue group could walk in the parade? We really wanted to get the word out about our monthly runs as our town is only thirty minutes from JBLM. We have a very large Active Duty military community as well as some Goldstar families. The chamber of commerce thought it would be a lovely idea and we filled out the paper work. Next we went about asking our friends and family members to join us on December 1st rain or shine to help spread the word. We made it a family friendly event with the only requirement being you wear blue.

Once again my friends and family showed up when I asked. I am sure at times they think I have lost my mind with all the crazy schemes I come up with and ask them to participate.  We all showed up to a nice grey sky and very cold winds. Thankfully by the start of the parade the sun had popped out. Once we started moving we all warmed up a bit. My ladies helped me make silver jingle bell necklaces for the kids to wear. A friends mom made our ladies running group new blue beanies with wear blue on the front. We always freeze on our runs in the cold months now. They came in handy yesterday with the wind.

I had help make a special sign for our Goldstar family member to carry in honor of her father. Dana & I had bought out Michael's to make a wreath to put onto the front of the World War 2 Jeep her husband drove. It just so happened to be BLUE! It was also in WW2 which I thought lent to the charm of the day. Some of us had found blue Santa hats to wear as well to keep us all in the Christmas spirit. It turned out to be a great morning!


 Most of those pictured here ran with us back on Memorial Day 2012. I was excited that we had about five new members join us this time. We had our flyers all printed out I  made to hand out along the parade route. We hope to get more runners/walkers every month.







I loved how excited everyone was & eager to help me out on my quest to spread the word about this wonderful organization. Being an Army wife who has survived four deployments with my family still intact, I know how lucky I am. I know that running every Saturday whether in Yelm, Dupont, or at one of my races is an honor a privilege. That so many of my close friends and families I don't know would do anything to be able to run with their loved one still. 

This year we have a sponsor to help us put on the Yelm Memorial Day run, so I hope yesterday by spending our morning walking in the parade instead of on the sidelines we got the word out. I know after the parade I was stopped a couple times and asked for more information. Oh how I wish I had been able to have more flyers printed out. But I told them as much as possible & can only hope they go check out everything on-line. I also know that we where lucky enough to have a reporter from the Ranger walk with us and who is writing an article. I know the word is spreading & I am just so thankful to those in Dupont who have been doing this for awhile getting the word out about this group. If I had not seen that post last May on Facebook I would have never known . Now I do and I can help spread the sea of blue across Washington & hopefully Facebook. If it get's one more person to lace up their shoes & put on some blue then I've done what I set out to accomplish.





 Big Thank You to Dana on the far left for helping me out. Melissa right next to her & her mom for making the wonderful beanies. I could not have done it without all the help from the community. You ROCK Yelm & I'll see you all in January for our run!



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