The sun was shining, the temperature was in the 20's and it was Pride of the Birches parade.
Joe Murphy one of the leading member of Pride of the Birches celebrated a significant
birthday, Joe is a member of St Saviours Craigavon.
The project wishes Joe God's blessings for the
years ahead.
A big thank you the lady in The Birches and her family who allow me to park outside her home
every year. It is really appreciated as it is just where the parade ends.
This year we had some very special visitors. Volunteers Robert and Heather, whose daughter had twin
girls Katie and Evie, 7 weeks ago. Little Evie was very ill and was in hospital and had a serious operation,
but is now on her way to good health. The girls with their big brother Eli paid us a visit. All seemed to
enjoy the bands. Eli is in training to be a future volunteer as his job was to take care of the bus. It was
wonderful to see them all and thanks to Heather for her help on the bus.
Our young people sometimes get a bad press but the young gentlemen I come across at the parades
are very helpful and pleasant.
As we were closing up, 5 young men from Ballymacall - Jonathan, Caleb, Philip, Andrew and William folded
up all the table and chairs we had outside and packed them back on the bus. It might not seem a
big deal but it saved lot of work. So we want to say thank you to the young men for
all their help.
Again we had many good conversations, and laughs. There were around 30 bands at the parade.
Thank you so much to the Pride of the Birches for allowing us to attend their parade
For the photo gallery - please click here