YWDEP Rocked July 4th!!

First I was so pleasantly surprised that when I showed up at the rendezvous point, at 8:45 a.m., there were already two young women there. ON TIME. many more arrived within the next 20 minutes making this a YWDEP record - all in all we had 11 girls come to pump up the July 4th Takoma Parade with their immense spirit - and almost every single one arrived ON TIME. I'm verclempt...really...it's extraordinatry.

We drove to our site in a caravan of 4 vehicles and somehow found parking slots right next to our HUGE TRUCK, sponsored by EDGE CONSTRUCTION and the wonderful man who volunteered to drive it for us. I'm not sure quite how big the truck actually was - but it held nearly 20 of us up there - girls, parents, henry and mark (my heroes, who basically lifted and carried stuff, and pounded out bass rhythms the entire time) and myself. And a big tub of ice sporting plenty of water, sponsored by the parade. There were around 15 chairs strapped with bungies to the sides of the truck. We began taking our seats around 9:45, after hanging our lovely shower curtain banners off the sides. We then waited for our turn in the line up to come - all were excited.

Only problem was that mark was standing up with his drums while everyone else was sitting, and the sides of the truck were pretty high. We were concerned no one would see us - that they would only see mark and therefore would think this was his harem, or something to that effect. So at mark's suggestion, we decided to stand, and lean our drums on the chairs, and face out to the crowd. The plan worked wonders - we started off, playing kuku of course, and got copious smiles and positive feedback the whole way. Of course there was some teenage craziness...but definitely no lack of spirit.
We weaved in and out of rhythms but always came back to go-go, which pleased the crowds especially since we implemented our chant, with 2007 embelishments: "Young women drummers got the go-go beat" (and embellishments...) "We Ballin!!!!"

I admit i couldn't resist the chanting myself.
Thank yous are in abundance -
to EDGE CONSTRUCTION and our wonderful driver...
to mary anne and mike who got us the truck and the chairs and set up this great opportunity up for us...
to the parents and guardians who brought the girls, picked them up, and some who stayed the whole time...
to henry and mark, for their diligence and commitment...
to staci, atolvise and shelia, who showed up late but were determined to find us, and did; and who helped us out so much by passing out fliers on the street...
and to the girls themselves, for really SHOWING UP, ON TIME, and for bringing such immense spirit to the day, even if their hands hurt (sorry ladies!! -- remember, ice 'em!)

Hope to do it again next year!!!
Who's with me?