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| Victor dancing with his mother at the parade. Courtesy of Victor's facebook page |
Quotes pulled from patersonpress.com. Please support their website as they support our mission here.
Amazing day. Absolutely inspiring and just confirms everything I am doing here.
Today, Paterson's own Super Bowl Champion Victor Cruz was honored in front of the entire city. Everyone came out to celebrate and it was easily my favorite day here since I happened upon this city. Here's a couple reasons why.
One reason is simply that everyone came out. Usually in the city, parades have been held over the years in order to celebrate individual ethnic groups and such. Essentially, the parades were never really a 'together' kind of thing.
Today was different. There were no rivalries, just unity. I really do not know how to express in words just how powerful it was to see.
Another reason is that today was a perfect example of the goal of this website being put into action. Unfortunately for the city, having parades has become a very difficult thing to do with an underserved police force among other adverse conditions. No problem. NJ Assemblyman Benjie Wimberly, coincidentally Victor's high school football coach at Paterson Catholic, arranged the entire parade with the help of local businesses. No public dollars used at all. Just donations and assistance from people who cared and wanted to work together to make this happen. Isn't it a little frightening how perfectly this is all coming together for this idea? Assemblyman Wimberly embodied this entire idea today and I'm eternally grateful for that.
Back to the parade itself. The floats all began at the Great Falls, traveled down Spruce St. where the NJCDC offices are located, and down Market St. all the way to the front of City Hall. I arrived at 2:00PM when it was beginning but I guess since karma is on my side these days, I was able to have VIP access for the whole ordeal. Even got to meet Victor himself after so he can promote the cause here. (And I was of course like a little kid in a candy shop meeting one of my favorite players from my favorite team)
I also had a great conversation with WNBA All-Star Essence Carson about all the great stuff that is happening. She was very excited about it all. Thanks for taking the time to speak to me, Essence.
Also had a pretty quick but insightful conversation with Congressman Pascrell. Thank you again for that, sir.
I spoke with so many people about this website today and the support was amazing. For those not mentioned here, I apologize profusely, you all deserve to be recognized but I'm only human.
Alright, so it was all a sight to behold, free t-shirts from Victor given to as many people as possible, all the local leaders throwing heaps of praise on this young, humble, and inspiring young man, the citizens together making it all happen. It was all just so inspiring. (I call Victor a young man like I'm old, Victor and I are the same age and hopefully he and I can work together from here out on making this city amazing)
I wish I could provide you all with quotes from all the leaders and everyone else but I was busy making sure all the kids around me could see Victor at the podium. Here's some citizens and their thoughts however:
Patersonian Lawanda Campbell attended the parade with her daughter and was especially thrilled about the parade’s impact on Paterson residents and the city itself, “The parade was fabulous,’’ she said. “Victor Cruz is Number 1. We have so many people from Paterson that are professionals. We are so proud of them. So keep up the good work Victor Cruz.”
“It’s cool because he’s (Cruz) coming from where he started, giving back to Paterson,’’ said teenager Zaier Williams. “A lot of people don’t give back to the community where they came from, maybe they don’t like the neighborhood.’’
Victor received the key to the city and rightfully so. “This is a humbling experience,” said Cruz. “I am never afraid to tell people where I’m from and that’s Paterson.” Here was a young man from the 4th ward in Paterson, who went to play at UMass in college, almost screwed it all up twice, (someone correct me if I'm wrong, I'm going off the stories I remember watching) then he realized fortunately thanks to his mother that he needed to get it together and work hard if he wanted to accomplish what he was hoping...
And then he made it all happen and then some. Victor's story is one of the most inspiring I've ever witnessed and it should be told to all on a regular basis.
Paterson is going to be next.
It was truly an inspiring day.
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