Graham Kislingbury

I usually plan out a simple lesson on Saturdays or early Sunday mornings for the high school youth group that I lead at my church.

There was no time for planning last weekend. Nancy and I were in Portland all day Saturday, and I edited OSU football and Santiam Christian volleyball videos Saturday night and into the early hours of Sunday.

What I did have handy on Sunday morning was a laptop with the Veterans Day Parade video I shot last Wednesday. Several of our kids were in the parade, so I decided we’d talk about veterans and the military (one of our members plans to join the Marines), and then see the 5 1/2-minute video.

We met at our usual noontime gathering spot, Charlie’s on Third Avenue. After lunch and a short discussion, we viewed the video. When it ended, a lady came over and said the video caught her attention. She then introduced herself as Patty Louisiana and said that she coordinated the Veterans Day Parade.

Patty said she had read my Friday column complimenting Louie White, president of the Veterans Commemoration Association, for following through on his promise that the parade would start on time. It did, at 11 a.m. sharp on Veterans Day.

Louie made the on-time parade prediction back in July, and he had the vision for an event that would run like clockwork. It was Patty who pulled it off, doing a great job of coordinating the parade for the first time.

After Patty introduced herself, I asked her to join our group. She sat with us for a few minutes and talked about the logistics of the parade and a number of changes she made this year. She also spoke about her son, who is serving with U.S. forces in Iraq, and her daughter, who will be serving in Afghanistan this spring. Both of her children have done previous tours of duty in Afghanistan.

It was a nice coincidence that Patty happened to be Charlie’s on Sunday. And kudos to her for a job well done.

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