As I was finishing up LuLu’s art project from yesterday all by myself (because her hands were tired), I exasperatedly thought “why am I doing this again?” Her art project was an assignment from me to make six sets of Dalmatian ears out of felt to glue on headbands. Why? Because we have six Dalmatian-clad children riding on our church’s float in the town’s parade on Saturday.

Super Dad and I are the people “in charge” this Saturday of our huge church-wide celebration event, which includes a float, several hours worth of band and musical entertainment, kids games, storytelling, a BBQ, and a free movie. It is a massive undertaking that we insanely volunteered to start last year. Last year’s effort was such a rousing success, that we’re on again for this year. The goal is for our church community to celebrate our part in the bigger community and to get a chance to meet some of our neighbors. These types of events in our small-town-swallowed-by–suburbs is one of the things I find most endearing about where we live.

As I grumbled about all the little details on my “to do” yesterday (buying 2000 popcicles, checking in with committee chairs, finding enough coolers, and making the dog ears), I remembered why it is important that my family does this. My childhood was filled with numerous opportunities at community. I grew up in a very small farming town, where from the time I could toddle, I accompanied my father on Friday nights at the high school football games. The whole town was there, even if you had no child in high school. When I learned to ride a bike, we would crepe paper the wheels and ride along in the homecoming parades. Halloween was a whole town event (even my grandmother made popcorn balls and dressed up). We were children belonging to the community, and our parents had a built in sense of one for all and all for one.

Our society today does not allow for this type of atmosphere very often. Church is one of the places it does. Our congregation is well trained in Safe Sanctuary protocols and concerned about safety (hence the reason we will be up early Saturday morning placing safety fencing around the kids area and going over procedures with volunteers). But the idea is to let everyone who comes be a part of our community and to just enjoy each other.

And to make memories for our children. Last year LuLu successfully paraded down mainstreet with “the regular kids” passing out popcicles in her Narnia-themed costume. This year, she will be an EMT/doctor and the float will be a firetruck. And the Dalmatian ears…well now you know why.

Creating this level of community activity is extremely time-consuming. Everyone is so busy with his/her individual lives. We have over 100 volunteers involved in Saturday’s event. But all are willingly participating because the thing is…we all get something back.

And I smile to think what this teaches my children about who they are and the importance of caring for others. LuLu was proud that she was the one making the ears for the “little kids” and Kay is willingly slipping into a costume to tell stories to groups of children throughout the day.

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