SWOT volunteers at The Parade Company

"Hats off Detroit"

On Saturday, November 17th students from the University of Michigan-Dearborn and members of the community volunteered with The Parade Company that sponsors the annual Thanksgiving Day Parade on November 22nd. Members from SWOT, C.H.I.E.F., Henry Ford Community College, Jumpstart, Volunteer Dearborn, and the community worked together to help pack a float with over 300,000 Mardi Gra beeds. With over 30 volunteers on this day, everyone worked together to produce an assembly line that would open the boxes, take out the beeds and load the beeds onto the float. With the fast production of these volunteers, the process was done within 3 hours and the volunteers had time to spare for lunch.

The theme for this year's 81st America's Thanksgiving Parade is "Hats off Detroit." It recognizes the rebirth of Detroit through the success of the downtown development and the amazing success of the professional sports teams in the city. This event was setup through SWOT and was nicely advertised by Volunteer Dearborn. Some volunteers brought their families and others were just excited about the opportunity.

Group photo at The Parade Company

So "Hats off" to all the volunteers that came out on Saturday to volunteer. It was a fun and exciting day to remember how the University and local community continues to make the "Metropolitan Impact" within the community of Southeastern Michigan. Happy Holidays to all!

-SWOT