Marching In The Israel Day Parade

My daughter marched in the Israel Day Parade--her first time. Apparently, it was the first time the 3rd grade was invited to participate with the school.

Here's a picture of my daughter--she's the one with the smile.

I was there as one of the 'chaperones'.
As you can see, the girls in my daughter's row had the job of shaking maracas.

Actually, I wouldn't exactly call it marching...more like coordinated leisurely wandering, but it did get the job done.

The theme was: The Faces and Places of The State of Israel
Here are some of the faces--on the far right (geographically) is Rav Kook. In the middle is Golda Meir:

Other faces included David Ben Gurion, Chaim Weitzman, Theodor Herzl, Rav Goren, and Natan Sharansky--apparently Sharansky was the only live person depicted.

Here are some of the places:

It was fun for the kids, though I imagine some of them may have been taken aback to see Neturei Karta protesting along with some other "anti-Occupation" protestors, though I couldn't tell for sure if the children actually noticed.

One initial problem we had was getting the kids in each row to spread out. But that was only initially. As we marched down 5th Avenue, it seemed that some of the horses the police were riding left some helpful inducements.

After the first one of two encounters, the kids had no problem remembering to keep spread out on their own.

The Kotzker was right: the middle of the road really is for horses.

...And don't forget to check out this picture of the JBlogosphere float at the parade--courtesy of Muqata!

Technorati Tag: Israel.