Parade Rest Stop
June 30th, 2008 by Jennine
The raindrops started just outside of St. Cloud and I had a hunch we were in for a long, cold, wet football game.
Darren, Kevin and I attended the Minnesota High School All-Stars game on Saturday night but before the game started, we met up with Jeff of View From the Cloud. Having met Jeff and his wife, Char, on a previous occasion, I knew it would be a joy to see them again.
And it was.
As Jeff explains here, his son, Austin was chosen to be Grand Marshal for the Granite City parade. Austin is one of those kids who seems to be born with an ability to change the world for the better and has the courage to actually do it. Not only was he a leader for the parade, he is the leader in the proposed St. Cloud Skate Plaza.
This 16 year old kid rubs shoulders with the mayor of St. Cloud and prominent businessmen in the area and talks about it like it’s no big deal, and certainly less admirable than his latest skateboard move.
Jeff and Char need to write a recipe book on how to make a great child. The profits from the book would fund hundreds of skate plazas and then Austin could start “The Austin Lee Foundation” and give grant money to kids with visions.
The icing on this happy cake was finally, at long last, meeting Jeff’s parent, Bill and Lois.
A look back at my blog entries would tell the story of how Bill and Lois have become dear friends of mine, one encouraging comment at a time. They’ve been with me during some bumpy roads and have invested love into my life. Amazing how you can love someone having never met them and how wonderful it makes the meeting!
Had it been an option for me, I would have skipped the game and spent time trading witty comments with Bill and hugging Lois until she finally said “Oh for Pete’s sake, stop already!” Then Jeff would’ve had to peel me off of his mom and file a restraining order.
Five minutes wasn’t nearly long enough.
After this special encounter with the Lee family, we headed over to Husky Stadium for the game. Fox Sports was filming for a later broadcast and being able to witness the behind-the-scenes of that was very interesting.
One of the broadcasters was getting ready to go live when a bird crapped all over the front of his shirt. It was hilarious to see a crew member search in downright panic for a towel to clean it off the poor announcer.
A half dozen Viking cheerleaders were there along with former Viking players, Randall McDaniel and Matt Blair, who served as honorary coaches for the teams.
Not more than ten minutes into the game, the sky opened up and the deluge began. For three hours I ran up and down the sidelines trying to get good photos of the athlete playing from my hometown while the rain prevented me from seeing through my glasses, all the while craving Lois’s warm hugs.
The team I was hoping would win, lost. I managed to get a few decent photos for the paper but the real story of the day happened at the beginning of a parade.
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