WHEELERSBURG — When it comes to being involved with America’s military, the folks at Living With a Cause are right on the front lines, and that’s precisely where they were on Saturday for the Living With a Cause Wheelersburg Memorial Day Parade.
People lined the parade route with lawn chairs and blankets, and took photographs of all the displays including all of the Portsmouth River Days contestants. The Wheelersburg High School Marching Band provided the music and the patriotism was courtesy of Living With a Cause.
“We got involved because we’re about our community,” Living With a Cause founder and president Mike Gifford said. “It’s not Wheelersburg. It’s not Portsmouth. It’s not Lucasville. But we’re about our community totally, involving everybody here.”
Gifford is a vice president of the multinational corporation — the API Group
“Our company just won the National Chamber of Commerce Wounded Warrior fifth Annual Hiring Our Heroes award,” Gifford said. “Mr. Lee Anderson, (president of) the API Group, is the man I term the greatest American that I ever met that supports America 150 percent.”
Erika Hall and Clint Hatfield led the parade off carrying the Living With a Cause banner.
“There was a good turnout of people that came and watched it,” Hall said. “Everyone seemed very happy that it was happening. It was fun to be a part of and to see little kids waiting for that candy. They had their bags ready to go. That was the cutest thing.”
Along the parade route when the band passed, people got into the action.
“We saw some people dancing and playing the air drums,” Hall said. “I had a great time just watching people walking down the road.”
Several military units, including the Veterans of Foreign Wars, were in the parade as well as local favorite, former Cincinnati Reds scout Gene Bennett in the Little Red Machine.
Gifford described his organization this way: “We’re about a cause. It’s people power. And we need to take back our community. We need to take back our nation.
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