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    SUBMITTED PHOTO The After the Parade hot dog handout of a previous year.
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    PHOTO BY GARY ZUPANCIC/WIMBERLEY VIEW Rev. Gary Fine started the hot dog tradition 19 years ago.

Hot dogs: A post parade Wimberley tradition

Red, white and blue, the big three colors in July. The banners, bunting and flags are all waving up and down Ranch Road 12 and fire works going off, it’s the Fourth of July! The midsummer festivities are on and as is traditional, the parade on Thursday morning is always well attended.

One local Fourth of July tradition has been going on for almost twenty years supplying hungry parade goers with nourishment after the parade, a sort of Wimberley version of the Biblical story of the loaves and fishes.

Hot dogs after the parade started when the new pastor of Wimberley Christian Church, Gary Fine, saw the huge crowds after the parade. A newcomer to Wimberley, an idea struck him.

“Twenty years ago, I saw these people standing in front on Ranch Road 12, hundreds of people lined up…being new here, I thought, there’s all these people in front of the church,” Fine said.

“Hot dogs! This might reach people. We came up with the idea (for the next year’s parade) of 450 hot dogs. We ran out three times at Country Boy (now Brookshire’s). And now in our nineteenth year, we saw a need and we met it.”

People have now made it a Wimberley tradition and enjoy it year after year. “It’s a really good outreach to the community and to explain about the church and who we are. But there is very little propaganda, after all free is free with no strings attached.”

Donations are accepted at the gathering with the proceeds going “for water wells in India, five wells. Providing clean water for the mission in India.”

Free hot dogs after the parade on the Fourth of July, in it’s nineteenth year, a wonderful Wimberley tradition. For more information on the Wimberley Christian Church, their website is wimberleychristianchurch.com or better yet stop by after the parade and get your hot dog and information. Oh yeah, ice tea and other soft drinks are also free. Happy Fourth!

Wimberley View

P.O. Box 49
Wimberley, TX 78676
Phone: 512-847-2202
Fax: 512-847-9054