Congress in March of this year voted overwhelmingly to designate July 28, 1994 as National Parents' Day. Literally thousands of North Dakotans learned of this on Saturday, July 23. It was on this day that through the inspiration of Betsy Orman blessed families in North Dakota worked together to prepare a beautiful float for the annual North Dakota State Fair "Parade of Champions."

Gene Immel, "Hometowning It" Carrington, ND, with his wife, Mary Jo, and three children, inspired our float theme, "Parents are the Key to the Future," which fit in well with the overall parade theme of "Celebrate a Vision for the '90s."

Our theme was carried out with a seven foot open door bearing the words "The Future," having been unlocked by a five foot long key lettered with the word "Parents". All of this, plus four parents and eight children on a twelve foot decorate trailer. Gene Immel and Mrs. Norma Cook distributed Parents' Day information along the entire three mile parade route.

The Immel, Orman and Cook families rode on the float. What a great joy to see the hundreds of children along the parade route scampering with great delight to receive the candy and balloons being dispensed with equal delight from our float by our blessed children (ages 2-7 years).

The parade concluded at the State Fairgrounds with Governor Ed Schafer warmly greeting our float. He informed us that his wife and ND Lt. Gov. Rosemarie Myrdal were working on a state project for National Parents' Day which fits in nicely with this year having been designated "The Year of the Family" here in North Dakota.

Although not originally designated to be the final parade entry, through a miscommunication with the parade committee this is where we ended up, #219 A. Not only did we have a lot of fun working jointly on a project but with a minimum of time and expense we could carry a vital message to the people of our state.

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