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Each year, the
Lewis County
Fair draws thousands of visitors, and is traditionally regarded as the
largest annual public event in the county. On parade night, thousands
line the streets of the parade route to cheer on their favorite bands, fire
departments, and area businesses.
Over the years, Opportunities has participated in many fair parades, and
continued this tradition in 2007 by entering the parade float competition.
The challenge at hand was to adapt the parade's "Harvest of Memories" theme
into a float that was relevant to our message here at Opportunities.
Our creative staff answered the call by designing a "War On Poverty" float
with a 1960's theme. What's the connection you ask?
It all goes back to 1964, when President Lyndon Johnson declared a “war on
poverty”, making poverty a national concern during a period of activism and
change in America. Community Action across the nation was born, and a
year later in 1965, Lewis County Opportunities was created. Since that
time, Opportunities has been battling issues of poverty on the local front
by offering advocacy and services designed to help give families a "hand up"
as they struggle to make ends meet.
These days it's clear the war on poverty isn’t over; it has merely fallen
off the national agenda. Our float was designed to heighten this
awareness at the parade, and featured colorful signs, flowers, walkers in
60's style dress and 60's music as the float passed by. As we
walked through town, we received many smiles and shouts of support from the
crowd! Parade officials must have agreed, as Opportunities was awarded
1st place in the float competition later that evening. It was a
"groovy" end to a "far out" evening! |
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