Don’t Rain On My Parade! – Wet, Wind Doesn’t Stop TPAC

By Susan Jones

For more photos of this event. go to http://southsidemessengerphotos.shutterfly.com.

The weather may not have cooperated for the 16^th Annual Trucker’s Parade Against Cancer this past Saturday, but it didn’t stop nearly 200 drivers from showing up to make sure the show did go on. Over $90,000 was raised for the American Cancer Society on Saturday—an unexpected bright spot in the dreary day that dumped over six inches of rain in Charlotte County.

As a tropical storm developed in the Caribbean beginning September 28, few, if any, of the TPAC organizers considered how the storm might affect the weather in our surrounding area a mere 1,900 miles away. But as the storm developed into Hurricane Matthew and the probability of it making landfall somewhere on the East coast loomed closer, the impending storm got the team’s attention. By Tuesday night before the parade on Saturday, all bets were off on there being a parade. Team members communicated via texts and e-mail discussing using the optional rain date advertised for Sunday. But then by Thursday, the last chance to make a change in the date, the hurricane was making an eastern turn making Saturday appear to be clear skies. The call was made: TPAC would take place on its original date, Saturday, October 8. Food began being prepared, tents were set in place, radio stations were called. All systems were go, but Mother Nature had different plans.

Team members and volunteers began to arrive at Darrin and Sheila Jones’ house on Nollie Road on the outskirts of Phenix by 6:00 a.m. Huddled underneath the tents, the first of many last-minute changes were made to accommodate the trucks that would soon begin to arrive. Parking would be doubled on the hard surface to give the trucks traction. Tables and chairs were scooted closer together under the lunch tent in an effort to keep everyone a bit drier. Auction items were draped in tarps. Cargo trailers were brought in to protect sound equipment, paperwork and even the hundreds of pies brought in for lunch.

The first trucks started rolling in just before 8:00 a.m. Banners were taped to the front of the trucks with the help of numerous volunteers who covered the front grills in umbrellas in an effort to provide a small dry spot that would hold tape on the newly washed and waxed road tractors. When the driveway on Nollie Road overflowed with trucks, a second parking location was set up at the nearby Phenix Elementary School parking lot.

Umbrellas, muck boots, and rain gear were the attire, but in spite of the rain, the smiles and laughter made it feel as if the sun were shining.

As the trucks pulled out to begin the 25-mile parade route through Phenix, Charlotte Court House, Drakes Branch and on to Keysville, the familiar blast of horns began. This powerful army of trucks will not be silenced today. Listeners heard what sounded as a distant moan before the trucks roared into view carrying the names of friends and loved ones whose lives had been forever changed by cancer. With horns blaring and the mighty rumble of engines, the distant moan became a primal roar as the horns echoed across the county like Gabriel’s trumpet. Our loved ones will not be forgotten. We will continue to fight for a cure. There is hope on the horizon.