Saturdays are always busy but today was over the top!
The Strawberry Plains Strawberry Festival was great! We raised over $400 and ran out of hot dogs. Many people took our brochures and domestic violence information. Volunteers, Annie, Brad and Martha served up the best hot dogs in downtown Strawberry Plains!
I set up our display at the Mental Health Matters event in Dandridge. This was sponsored by the Holston Conference of the United Methodist Church. What a great lineup of workshops! It was good to see so many people looking at the problems of mental health. Many, many thanks to the folks who agreed to take care of our display after I dropped it off. It enabled me to be in two places at once.
Back in the Strawberry Plains at the festival the parade kicked off at high noon. Two of our kids rode the parade route in a 1942 Ford Fairlane. Boy, did they enjoy that! Thanks Tommy driving your car on our behalf!
After the parade I dashed to our thrift shop. The parade staging area was set up right in front of our store. This gave our volunteers there a bird's eye preview while making it impossible to get into our lot before the lineup pulled out. Two great volunteers, Gwen and Nita had everything under control.
Running back and forth between the shop and the food both were a total of 9 teen volunteers. Rachel, Adam, Doug, Charlie, Brittany, Chelsea, Clay and Aaron. One teen volunteer, Sam, came to help for an hour before she had to go into work.
It was a long day and a lot of hard work. But it was worth every minute.
Why do we do all of this?
The graduation of Carter High School was held Saturday night. As soon as we started to run out of hot dogs again we closed the booth so we could get there. We saw clients walk across the stage, other clients sang in the choir and another played in the band. I'm so proud of all of our kids.
One teen was worried that no one would see her graduate. Her family was recently torn apart by domestic violence. Those of us with Hope for Healing.Org cheered loudly as she took her diploma. She knew that someone was there to support her.
Another teen was homeless and staying with whomever would take him in. His situation makes it difficult for him to get a job. There is no public transportation in rural areas. It is a requirement that graduates purchase a cap and gown if they are to walk across the stage. For some of us $25 may not be much. For a homeless student it's a million. We made it happen. After graduation he hugged me and held on saying that without our help with the outfit and other things he would not have graduated. We all need help from time to time. I'm glad that we were there to believe in him.
Today was an amazing day. If you have donated to us or bought an eBay item, gave your time, or supported us in any way you made hope happen.
We couldn't do it without you.
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