Don’t get us wrong … we like a delicious Thanksgiving meal as much as the next guy (or gal)! But instead of devoting this year’s Thanksgiving blog post to a list of restaurants you can stuff yourself with turkey if you don’t feel like cooking—or which have the best pie—we thought we’d talk about another beloved Austin Thanksgiving tradition: The Chuy’s Children Giving to Children Parade.
Now in its 29th year, the parade was the inspiration of Chuy’s co-founder, Mike Young. Today, Chuy’s and other parade sponsors partner with Operation Blue Santa, a not-for-profit community-based organization run by the Austin Police Department with support from the Austin Fire Department, Austin Energy, Austin Water Utilities and Texas National Guard. Each year, Operation Blue Santa is responsible for providing holiday meals and gifts to families around Austin who might not be able to afford these on their own. Last year, they served more than 4,500 families.
Parade-goers are asked to bring new, unwrapped toys to donate to the effort. As they enjoy giant inflatable balloons, holiday floats, marching bands, classic cars and more (including a visit from Santa himself), they can give their toys to Santa’s Helpers, who line the parade route to collect them. These, in turn, are handed over to Operation Blue Santa for distribution. To date, the parade has been responsible for collecting hundreds of thousands of toys for children of Central Texas who otherwise might not see anything under the tree on Christmas morning.
This year’s parade will take place on Saturday, November 18 beginning at 11 a.m. and will last approximately one hour. It starts at the State Capitol at 11th and Congress, moving south on Congress all the way to Cesar Chavez, ending just north of the bridge. Click here for a parade map.
From everyone here at Blairfield Realty, happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!
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