Well, happy 250th birthday almost Cheryl McCrary is here.
Hi Cheryl.
How are you?
Good morning, Don and everybody in the scene doing great this morning.
Now look closer Mike.
I don't want to miss any word you have to say.
You are so decked out today.
You came in, you got the crown, you got the sash.
We'll talk all about that.
You got that whole 4th of July look going on and whoa, put me to shame.
Well, you gotta get ready.
Gotta get ready the 250th this year, celebrating this year and our parade.
We're number 93, we just found out.
So here we go.
You know, I went to a thing, let's talk at the library the other day, and the lady was from the Daughters of the American Revolution, the AR, and she gave a talk on the nine American Revolutionary War vets that have buried in Wisconsin.
One is going to be in the cemetery where I'm going to
He put some day and it's very interesting nine of them and how they got to Wisconsin They're actually 40 in Wisconsin how they got here from New England where they all fought the British back then It's a it's a great story on how that all happened and things I didn't know about I knew he was buried there But I didn't know how he got here and my wife and I just started watching the Ken Burns documentary on the American Revolution 20 hours
It's fascinating.
Things I never knew before about the actual fighting of the British and what was involved with General Washington and what led up to the actual revolution itself, the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Really good.
And that's what this is all about, the 250th birthday.
And I was looking at the house next door to me.
The house was next door to me.
It was built in 1880.
That's just a little over a hundred years.
The Declaration of Independence was signed.
All right, so you love, this looks like one of your favorite holidays.
It is, you know, we've been hanging out and doing the parade.
My husband's here with me at studio and set this morning for, this will be a 22nd year for the Racine Parade.
So we deck out our float, we build it in a garage and we trail it down to the Racine Zoo line up there with Jake and Wendy and all the rest of the awesome crew with the Racine.
fourth best parade.
So we're looking forward to 250th year of America for the anniversary and probably wearing Micron and Sash to represent all American Mrs. Wisconsin lady for our state.
Now, when you're in
the parade, is it a flatbed you're on?
Yeah, we actually have a trailer that we have and we decorate it and it works out really nice because it's a way where we can actually have it where it's applicable for our band to be up there.
We have a sound system up there and we're all praying for no rain this
coming weekend.
Everybody come on.
We're seeing gotta pray for no rain in the north on just storms this Saturday morning.
You
know, it's rain or shine the parade.
No, but rain.
Yeah.
Rain it still goes.
I don't know how.
And I mentioned this to Mark Eichner from the Racine Concert Band.
How do you play on a moving truck?
I mean, occasionally going to hit a bump because they have the manhole covers are not exactly level with the road.
Occasionally going to hit a bump in the road.
That's got to be.
pretty tricky for someone standing on a trailer.
Yeah, you try to bring your flat shoes for riding and for pictures in between.
The girls bring their heels and then we get pictured up before and after.
But yes, you do have to stand very straight on an angle, so to speak, so that when our escort, who does a great job for us, drives us, we're stabilized.
And we do got a bungee down on a lot of our equipment.
And of course, be sure that we have our fire extinguisher on there and all the
We acquired great requirements and we have a small generator that helps generate our sound system.
We have a full sound system on there besides that decoration.
So it's the full, full gear out there.
So we, we cover everything though, to be sure that we don't have any rain.
We make sure we come ready to go for that as well.
At least you're not walking the two and a half miles.
I was speaking to the mayor the other day when he was in here.
He said, you're walking two and a half miles?
Yeah.
I couldn't do it.
I could have one time, I don't know.
I guess you can if you're waving to people, having a good time.
Yes, I know it's even some of the dance teams and stuff too.
And some of the gymnasts, it's great to see them.
I was a former gymnast as well.
And to see them going down with so much energy.
And one day, I think we came through passing the Golden Randall.
I think it was almost 100 degrees.
I think it was one of those days where it was like, eat index was over a hundred.
And we were really, really, oh boy, we hit the water in between quite a bit.
I always tape it up channel 24.
because I want to see what I miss.
And one year, I guess he was Horlick High School.
And I think he could have been Horlick.
He was one of the football players and he did a leap over the golf cart that was in front of them.
And after he leaped, he went into three somersaults and a jump into the air and landed on his feet.
And I say that because I've never seen anything like that before.
He did this on a parade route.
And there was no out of breath.
There was a leap over a golf cart.
If he would have missed that, it would have been tragic because the golf cart was moving.
When he did it, he leaped and then did three somersaults and landed on his feet.
That's amazing.
Wow.
Thank goodness.
We're going to have to probably
do
that.
Well, no, I'm going to have enough just singing and
you said you were a gymnast.
Yeah.
Yeah, can you imagine
doing a
flip
on I
could do a flip up on me with the crown and the sash up on my deck, you know, here we go.
There goes Cheryl over the side somewhere.
Oh, well, it was nice to have her in the partner parade anyway.
Exactly.
Okay, so let's talk about them.
You just got them with a charity cards for vets.
What was that about?
That was on June 27.
Yes, that was wonderful with a special friend, Nathi.
We actually met down at Bushes and Racine downtown, really beautiful shop.
And by the way, if anybody wants to visit from
anywhere from bakery items, special order items, and she's got little amazing little cubby holes for different artisans, including Anathi.
And we got together and we made cards for vets together.
We had families, community participants come in.
I did some singing in between.
It was absolutely wonderful.
And so those cards are presented to vets and it's just a wonderful way to let them know they're appreciated.
So
She's been doing this for some time and it's great to be partnered together to do that.
So.
And that is, that is really good to, when you're overseas or wherever you are, even if you're at camp in the United States and you're away from your, you know, loved ones, just to get letters to read.
Oh, yes.
I was never away from my family.
I've tried, but I was never away from my family for that long.
And it must be great to.
to get those here.
So those were great.
Whose idea was that, you know?
Again, again, that was Nathie.
She's Natasha.
She's been doing this for some time and we just are so grateful that we could, our partner together again, cards for vets.
And we also had an opportunity where they could buy a vet, a cookie that day at Bushes.
And again, what a great little shop.
If anyone hasn't been down there, go check it out.
That's right downtown and we've seen and we just absolutely love that.
It's just a wonderful little shop.
I'm going to continue to promote
that beautiful little boutique downtown of Racine.
We're talking to Cheryl McCrary and let's talk about your latest venture, Cheryl.
It's All-American Mrs. Wisconsin Lady.
What is that?
Well, that is a title that I've been assigned to represent our state here in Wisconsin and Racine is included in that.
So that is my title that I have been given to represent, again, the All-American pageant and Mrs. All-American pageant.
And this pageant has a really neat history.
Regarding Patricia Sullivan, who is my director, her husband was a very well-honored and decorated soldier.
And to continue to carry his legacy, she has put this in her heart to have a pageant that would also be geared to support our veterans and military around the country.
And the charity we're talking about here today, what's to talk about?
Operation We Care.
What an opportunity to be able to help support our men and women around the country who are serving on the front lines.
And so what it is is even some of the areas of when I sing some of the proceeds or donations that come back, we're trying to get that ready so that we can present a check to the Operation We Care and the charity to help out with those soldiers who have been deployed around the country.
And it also includes toiletries, personal items that maybe can be helped as well to give dissent to them, including some non-perishable food items.
So it's a wonderful organization and it's Operation We Care.
And it's just really a blessing that we can be able to help support such a wonderful charity.
You know, I told you, I was watching the Ken Burns documentary, The American Revolution.
And these soldiers, these are militant soldiers, they're militia.
These are regular people in towns all over New England.
and Virginia and some from the south who came to fight the British.
They went months with hardly any food, no, personal care.
I didn't forget about that.
They didn't have any of that.
They wore the same clothes for months.
And this is how they fought.
And we know the ending.
I'm not going to spoil it for you.
We won.
And I said to my wife, I couldn't survive like that.
There's no way I couldn't deal with it.
I couldn't survive in today's military yet.
be a militia man or a militia person back in the days of the American Revolution.
I couldn't do it.
I don't know.
I'd be talking British if they put me at the front line.
I just couldn't pull it off.
And, you know, God bless the soldiers who were doing it.
And so if you make their lives just a little bit nicer, a little bit more comfortable, so be it.
You know, it's got to be scary to be overseas if you're in a foreign country and you know, you're living there and your family's back here and it's got to be scary.
Yes, you know, we we are so grateful for all of our men and women who are serving actively and who have gone on before us.
My father was with the USMC with, you know, the Marine Corps.
So it's great to be able to help sing at a different American legions and our moose lodges.
I'll be back up there as well.
And it's just it's really amazing to see.
And especially during our Racine parade, when we have the still presentation of our soldiers coming through, I just love that one of my favorite floats of all time.
Here are some of the items they need.
Snacks like nuts, trail mix, sunflower seeds, beef jerky, et cetera.
Chef Boyardee.
Oh, I love Chef Boyardee ravioli.
Doesn't have to
bring back
to a blast in the past for all of us, right?
Blast in the past brings back yesterday.
Granola snack bars, pop tarts, microwavable popcorn, Kleenex pocket packs, drink mix singles.
Roman noodles, instant oatmeal, gum, hot chocolate, those kind of things.
Now, where would you bring them?
How do you get into people?
If they go to the Operation We Care website, again, they will be, all the information will be there and postage and how to get that all sent off.
And they can, you know, get that off to you.
So just, I believe they also have the Facebook page, but Operation We Care would be the actual website.
So people can go there.
I believe that also, you know, monetary donations are welcome.
And, you know, they've been doing this since July 3rd,
2003.
So it started just by some people, some families that came together and a mom and local partners that have come together to do this.
And the history of the background of it is just beautiful.
If you can actually go online, you can go and get all the information.
They actually could use volunteers if people wanted to do that.
And we're going to try to do some events here.
Again, heroes, concert for heroes.
So I'm going to try to do that.
We're going to do some music and try to raise some funds for them as well.
If you check out the online wish lists at myregistry.com and amazon.com, we'll have it as well.
So the pageant you're involved in now, the All-American pageant, let's see, All-American Mrs. Wisconsin Lady Pageant, it's going to be held in October, Ocean City, Maryland.
Yes, yes, beautiful, beautiful.
Actually, it's going to be great.
All the husbands of the
The married pageant participants will be probably walking around enjoying the car show.
There's a beautiful car show there at the Ocean City at the hotel where we've been saying it's absolutely gonna be beautiful.
So they're gonna probably enjoy that.
What we're all doing rehearsals and get ready for that.
I'll be also competing as one of my options to be participating as well.
I'll also with interview.
We have our evening gown participation and community service, which is one of my favorites here in our city and throughout the Midwest saying and share and share my platform, which is helping to embrace and honor the legacy of our veterans.
nation veterans and our EMS respond to heroes faith-failing freedom with PTSD awareness.
Sharon McCrary will be number 93.
93 in the parade.
Yes, we'll be rolling through.
Go to your bathroom breaks in the 80s and wait.
So you're back in time for 93.
Exactly.
Yes, come on.
Shirazan has become few to represent our state and also our amazing receding Wisconsin in the 22nd year of our amazing 4th best parade.
All right, Cheryl, what are we going to hear?
Well, this is gonna be a song that we wanted to just go out with.
God bless America.
Sing along with us this weekend as we come through, but this is a great song in honor of our 4th of July.
God bless
America.
God bless America Land that I love Stand beside her And guide her yet through the night
above from the mountains to the
Let's
