Snake Saturday: We Did It!!!

Soldiers' Angels participated in the Snake Saturday parade, Saturday, March 10. It was a fantastic experience. We had a great turn out of Angels including a Denizen of Castle Arrggh!.

The crowd was great. We took video (which I am diligently editing) and asked people to give a message to our troops. All along the route, when we said we were supporting our troops and making a video message to send them, the crowd went crazy. People were screaming out "Thank you!", "We Love You!", "Stay Safe!" and "God Bless You!". I have so much great video, it's hard to pick out what to keep. Unfortunately, a CD only holds 700mb and we have 1gb (1000mb) of video. Plus, You Tube only allows you to put 100mb per video up. So, you see why it is taking a little longer to get the video up. Please have a little more patience.

In the meantime, here are some great pictures to look at and a little of the story:





Mr. and Mrs. Louthain whose son Derek, currently serving in Iraq, loaned us the truck and trailer. Mrs. Louthain made our T-shirts and Banners. Mr. Louthain drove the truck. Without them we couldn't have done this. A super Thank You! to the Louthain family.





According to (not unbiased) sources in the audience, our float garnered the loudest and longest applause, even though it was simple compared to some. Of course, we had some great representatives of the armed forces riding on our float.



I had taken so much video, I ran out of memory on my 1gb memory card for the digital camera. I ran back to our group and told them I was "out". One of the ladies suggested that I keep acting like I was video taping (since that got the crowd going) anyway. We were coming up to the judges stand. So, I did, and the crowd went wild, not even knowing I couldn't record a thing. It was too bad, because I missed the darnedest things. A little boy about 12 stood up and saluted. Then, one little girl said she wanted to send a message to our troops. She was about 10 and she said, "Thank you for fighting for my freedom."

Next year, I guarantee I will have two batteries and two memory cards! Or, someone else to bring a video camera or two.

I did get other great video, including a little girl who was about 6 and said, "I want to send a message. I hope they all be okay." That was just the cute stuff. Right at the beginning an older gentleman stopped me and said, looking into the camera, "We're proud of you! We're behind you!" and the lady next to him said, "Stay safe!" If I wasn't so busy recording and trying stay caught up with the float, I might have had to stop and have a good cry once or twice.

When we got up to the judges stand, we had not prepared anything to do or say because we thought we were going to be surrounded by "noise making" floats, so we made a chant on the fly: "Two, four, six, eight, who do we appreciate: soldiers, sailors, air force, marines" and we screamed really loud. The grand marshall came to the podium and said into the microphone, "I was in the Navy." So, we all screamed out (very spontaneously), "Go Navy!" fists pumping.

It paid off because we took 10th place for our float and won $1000 for Soldiers' Angels. I am very sure it was because we were the "crowd pleaser".

For Soldiers' Angels, it was also a great day because we handed out a ton of business cards to people who were really interested in how they could support the troops. As a matter of fact, my legs are killing me because I ran back and forth so many times recording and handing out cards. hahaha. It was great!

They say over 150,000 were at the parade and we really introduced them to our organization. It was grand to hear the people screaming their support for our men and women. I can't wait to finish the video and send it over so our men and women can know that, despite all the talking heads on TV, Congress People talking stupid and the protestors who descend on Washington DC, people really do support them and believe in them.

150,000 people can't be wrong.

All in all, I'd say Kansas City loves our troops!

Stay tuned for the video. I promise I'll have it edited and something ready to view on Tuesday.


Special for the denizens....spot the Castle Denizen



- May no soldier go unloved