Waukesha community gathers for Friendsgiving

WAUKESHA, Wisc. — The Waukesha Christmas parade was going connected conscionable a artifact distant from the Craft Lounge connected Main Street. As chaos erupted connected Sunday, galore utilized the barroom to question shelter. But connected Thursday, the assemblage used the abstraction to heal.

Finding country to springiness acknowledgment aft Sunday's tragic events mightiness look unimaginable for those successful Waukesha, but contempt it all, gratitude filled the aerial arsenic radical came unneurotic astatine the Craft Lounge. Many brought their ain Thanksgiving crockery to contribute.

Fairuza Jones and her parent carried successful a turkey. Her lad and hubby were downtown astatine the parade connected Sunday.

"My lad was downtown erstwhile everything happened and my bosom goes retired to each families, you know, that mislaid a loved 1 oregon had idiosyncratic injured," Jones said.

Jones' lad is lone 6 years aged and thankfully was unharmed. Today, she is grateful her loved ones are alive.

The Friendsgiving lawsuit was primitively a backstage enactment that Tony Davis was organizing for his friends.

"I had a batch of friends that don't person household members to walk the vacation with," Davis said. "When everything connected Sunday happened, that's erstwhile plans changed."

While Davis wasn't astatine the parade, helium has inactive felt each spot of symptom and nonaccomplishment that galore successful his Waukesha assemblage are experiencing.

"It's pugnacious driving down that thoroughfare and seeing the areas wherever you cognize definite things occurred and happened," helium said. "Now much than ever, we truly privation radical to understand, whether you were present astatine the parade, you witnessed things unrecorded oregon you saw it connected the news, we're each grieving unneurotic and we request an avenue for america to beryllium capable to heal together."

Together, helium believes the assemblage tin physique back.

In conscionable 48 hours, Davis was capable to stitchery implicit $3,000 of donated gifts to beryllium auctioned off. He says each of the proceeds volition beryllium donated to the United Waukesha Fund.

"When you person that benignant of outreach successful specified a abbreviated clip it's genuinely a testament to what makes Waukesha strong," helium said.

This communicative was primitively published by Jessica Madhukar connected Scripps presumption TMJ4 successful Milwaukee, Wisconsin.