Members March in Knoxville Mardi Gras Parade
March 2000
A dancing plate led a motley krewe of grocery cart pushers and funny-money giver-outers through downtown
Knoxville for the Mardi
Gras parade in March. TFT members marched in Community Shares annual event, which drew hundreds of Knoxvillians out to
review the krewes (teams) on parade, representing numerous grassroots groups
who help raise money for Community Shares and each other.
A local Food City loaned TFT two grocery carts, which we covered
with posters: MARCHING FORTH ON MARCH FOURTH FOR TAX REFORM NORM.The carts were
filled with bags of groceries on loan from an emergency food bank.
While the carts were pushed, the TFT banner was toted and MT Plate
danced for the crowds, phony $250 bills were passed out to the onlookers. As
they read the funny money they soon realized it represented the amount of money
they could save on their grocery bill every year if the state sales tax on food
was abolished. Very few bills were thrown away. Most folks seemed to put them
in their wallets.
About Community Shares
Sponsor of the Knoxville Mardi Gras Parade.
Community Shares was formed in 1985 to give employees a choice
in how they spend their charitable dollars in workplace giving campaigns. Community
Shares funds 40 nonprofit, grassroots organizations, including Tennesseans for
Fair Taxation, all of which work to address the root causes of problems that we
as individuals and communities face.
Community Shares puts your money where you want it to go. Community
Shares groups work on issues such as hunger, health care, domestic violence,
education and environmental issues. Community Shares supports groups at the
local, regional, and state level. This provides givers with the option of keeping
their money in their own communities or using it to support change on a broader
scale.
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