Paper Sewn Visions

Good morning everyone,

As promised today I'm going to show you what went on in our little

town on Labor Day and what all it takes for all this to take place. In

the header picture is the ribbon awards that I made to give to the

parade entries that were judged and won. Our town doesn't have a

lot of businesses that we can ask for them to sponsor the parade so

we make do with what we have, with this being the case I saved our

community days committee almost a hundred dollars in making the

awards and we still have material left for next years awards.

For many that don't know it takes months to prepare to put on a

parade. Fliers and letters have to be sent out inviting people to come

and be in our parade. There is insurance that needs to be bought to

cover and it has to be a certain amount of coverage dictated by the

city. Arrangements have to be made with the city for a staging area,

road closures, when the parade will start and end, and when the roads

can be re-opened. We have to find an announcer that will announce

the parade entries. The day of the parade we need volunteers that

will make sure everyone that has come to our parade is registered so

that we have a discription of the entry for the announcer. We also

need volunteers that will get the entries on the parade route moving

along in an orderly manner. If all of this is not taken care of then we

would not have some of the entries you see in the pictures below.

The Ritzville Float. The Royal City float.

Wardens' FloatAfter the parade everyone heads to Volunteer Park where the festivities

continue. All of this also takes months of planning. There is also a certain

amount of insurance coverage that needs to be bought for this event. Ads

are placed in the paper and craiglist as early as march to hopefully get a

wide variety of vendors. We do give those that were here the year before

first dib to return before we start seeking more vendors. Besides working

on the vendors we start looking for entertainment. We plan with the city

on getting portable out houses, portable drinking fountains, road closures

around the park, power at the right locations for vendors to use, water

availability for the vendors to use also. Then theres figuring out placement

of booths so not to have vendors with similar items next to each other.

Making sure that we have banners to hang up around the area. The day of

the event we mark off the vendor spaces. Pictured below is some of the

entertainment and vendors.

Our Queen Madison singing. I wish I would have taped this so you could

hear her beautiful voice.

The next two pictures are a couple of higschool classes working to make

money for their senior trip when they become seniors. They start

working on their trip fund as freshmen. This is Wardens' FFA class raising money for their trips. Believe me it's a lot of work, and only about half a dozen people did it.

Yet there are always so many complaints about the way things are done.

The money that is taken in sits for next years event to pay for all the

paper, ink, stamps, ads, awards, etc. I've been part of helping put this on

for three years and this is my last year doing it. I'm tired of all the

complaining and people not realizing what I spend out of my own pocket

in fuel, the quicker oil changes, running around taking care of some of

these things. I've been sick to my stomache the day after the event and

am still sick. I don't know if it is stress, the heat, or food poisoning. For

the sake of my health that is why I will no longer help with this event.

Sorry for the long post but I had to get this off my chest.

I wish next years volunteers the best of luck in continuing the event.

Hope you all have a Spledid Day!!!!!!!!