During this time of social distancing, we have seen on the news inventive ways to celebrate big occasions from an anniversary air hug from a spouse on a forklift to a wedding where a city street replaced a church’s middle aisle.

As our Toledo province joins with the other three provinces, we showed our appreciation to our provincial superior and her councilors with a gratitude parade. On July 4 we lined our cars in the parking lot of Notre Dame Academy. After honking horns, we started our engines and paraded our Fords and Toyotas in front of our sisters in leadership, who lined the driveway. We called out our thanks and waved posters of gratitude. One banner along the route sported cartoon caricatures of the leadership team. The fun was videoed for our sisters unable to attend. Later in the day we remembered some of the high points of the past several years through a PowerPoint beautifully created by two sisters. Each sister in the province also wrote a note of gratitude to the provincial, Sister Mary Delores Gatliff. She received these at the start of the parade, along with a surprise gift in the bag of notes. Since she enjoys theater she was given a gift card to the Stranahan! Each of the Sisters who were part of the current Provincial Council also received bags of gratitude cards along with a personal gift card.