Early on the morning of the 4th, our float,which was built on the back of Shane's truck over the last couple of weeks, makes its way to the staging area. And we gather our team, we pray, and we wait. The kids are passing the time with a pantomime of baseball. Politicians to the front of us, scouts at the rear. We see sports teams, horse trailers, gymnastics clubs, businesses, and other churches. Each year, the Rotary chooses a theme, this year being "Hometown Heroes." We only see references to this in one or two other floats, but it's hard to say what came before and after us. Kingship wants to make the statement - Dads are our hometown heroes. I'm wondering how this will be received. We want to encourage families, and we want to encourage Dad's to lead their families. Will our message get through? Will we be understood? I recalled being a parent of kids who caught candy at the parade before. Fliers and candy all into the bag at once. I remember running into those fliers when I cleaned out the bag months later. I didn't want that to happen to our message.
I had mentioned the float to someone earlier in the week and their initial response was mild skepticism, but I explained more - that 1 out of 4 kids in Washington County is in a single-parent home. We need the Dads to believe that they can do this, to know that God believes that they can do this. Dad - you've got this! How do we know that this message will not get lost in the candy and chaos?
As soon as the parade moved us onto Grant Street and we began to pass spectators near 4th Street, we could feel the energy of the crowd. There were cheers and applause for the float - as soon as they saw, they knew that there was something here. I turned back to look at the truck, I saw a small amount of "smoke" coming out of the pony BBQ mounted at the top of the mountain, and our "Dad" - Rick - in his Hawaiian shirt and apron, using his BBQ tools like a climber's ice pick to ascend the mountain. He reaches the top, with a flare of passion, lifts the lid to the BBQ releasing clouds and billows of smoke. He places a gummy burger candy on the spatula and perfectly launches it into the crowd. Cheers and laughter erupt as it lands perfectly in a dad's outstretched hands.
As a walker, I have a stack of our fliers. I'm trying to target the Dads that I can see. I notice a group, standing behind their kids, so I make my way off the parade path onto the sidewalk and turn the flyer upright to the side with the QR code. I said "You've got this Dad" The smile was so much better than I had hoped for. As I returned to the road beside the float, I see wives nudging their husbands, "You've got this, Dad." The wife smiles. The husband's eyes shine, and a smiles. I was unprepared to witness this kind of encouragement. I saw dads holding babies in their laps, and I experienced such joy out of noticing him and handing him the flier. a small encouragement, but one that was deserved. Young teens see the float and playfully punch Dad on the arm, and they both laugh. Dads get the flyer, look down at it, and they keep reading. They are reading it!
We barely make it to Main Street before we run out of fliers. But Rick is still hamming it up, climbing the mountain, releasing the victory smoke of the BBQ, flinging burgers. The crowd is still loving the float. We judiciously try to conserve the tootsie rolls we have left. This moves our team to encourage more attention to the Dad on the mountain. We start chanting "Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad!" We cheer, and we are not alone. Candy or fliers or not, people are still seeing and hearing the message.
As we turn off Mainstreet onto Cornell, we have nothing left to hand out, so we all start looking into the crowd and wishing the onlookers "Happy Fourth!" I look at the men. You can tell which ones are dads. There is just something about being a dad - we can tell! I lock eyes with the Dad, give a strong thumbs up, "You've got this Dad!" They were seen. They were encouraged. I'm hopeful in new ways for our community, for the families of this generation, they saw it and were reminded who they are. This is who God says they are. You were chosen for this time, for their family, for their children. You can do this. You've got this!
Special thank you to all that volunteered and helped make this happen. We are extremely grateful and excited and assured that the Lord is at work in the dads, families, and people of Hillsboro.
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