Snow and cold couldn’t stop us today – we still marched in the Providence St. Patrick’s Day Parade and had a blast!!!
There were about 15 of us marching together today, representing Live it Up and the RI Dream Center. Most of us have been (or still are) homeless at one point in our lives, and I am so proud of how we are taking steps in the right direction to move forward with our lives. It felt great to march down the parade route and have the public acknowledge what we do and cheer for the progress we are making.
Every year, we give out hoodies to the homeless for Christmas…this past Christmas we made sure to hand out green ones specifically so we could represent in the parade….what do you think for this Christmas, orange??? Who’s with me!
This year, the parade was held in honor of Sister Ann Keefe, and I am so proud that we were able a part of it for her sake. I hope that we can make an impact on our city just like Sister Ann did. May she never be forgotten…(read more about Sister Ann here)
Along those lines, one of my friends at work made a huge impact with us during this parade. This friend goes to the parade every year. When she heard the Food Truck was going to be in it last year, she and her Dad put together over 50 St. Patrick’s Day cards with a $5 Dunkin Donut gift card in each one for us to hand out from the Food Truck to the street people we see along the route…it was pretty awesome…this year, though, she went all out…she worked with her co-workers to raise over $600 and put together more that 125 gift certificates for us to hand out. Because we had so many, we got to hand them out to more than just street people this year – we got to hand them out to the elderly as well. It was such an amazing time blessing the financially poor and the elderly with a smile, a hug, and a $5 Dunkin Donut giftcard for no other reason than “just because”. I wish the world had more of this kind of love in it…Friend, thanks for all your hard work, you did an amazing job – I know your Dad is proud!!!!!
Here is a sample of what one of the cards looked like, but check out the pictures on our Facebook Page to see many more of the smiles this day had to offer.
Thanks for checking in! I’m excited for what tomorrow holds!!!!
So, we had a great day in Providence today.
The RIDC Food Truck participated in Providence’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade today, and we had a blast!!!
Take a peek at the crew getting ready while we were waiting for our turn to start – I can’t get enough of these smiles:
I am so proud of this crew. Most of members of this crew was, or still are, homeless. Don’t let that fool you, though, as they are some of the most fun people to be around, and I enjoy every second hanging around with them. Seeing this group doing positive things with their lives totally makes my day! I love being able to give them a chance to be a part of something important.
By the end of the parade, we had even picked up a few more walkers….here’s the whole bunch:
Something else really cool happened – when one of my co-workers found out the Food Truck was going to be in the parade this year, she held a fundraiser at work and hooked us up with over 50 $5 gift cards to Dunkin Donuts and Subway for us to hand out to the homeless that we saw along the parade route. What a blessing it was – we gave all of them away today directly from the truck…pretty cool to be able to treat the homeless to a sub or some nice, fresh coffee – it was awesome being in the parade but actually doing what we do best at the same time…hey, why not take the opportunity to bless some of the homeless along the way!!!! Thanks MG – you are super special and we really appreciate your generosity!!! Check out how nice she made the cards up:
Walking in the parade made all of us feel special. Waving to all the people and having them cheer us on made us feel valued. At the very end of the parade, the announcer on the loudspeaker gave a huge shoutout to the RI Dream Center, yelling into the mic about what a great job we do for the city and how proud he is of us…it really make all of us feel great to be recognized for our hard work. When we were done, the crew was all smiles and all they could talk about was how we could make it even bigger and better next year.
I agree – can’t wait to see where this goes next year!!!!!!!!
Dream Center Diaries 
