REMINDER: YOUR SUBMISSIONS ARE ENCOURAGED | | |
1. Thanksgiving 2025: I'm starting this week with a short personal note wishing all of the Flock a Happy Thanksgiving.
2. Poetry: I have selected a verse from Thanksgiving by Ella Wheeler Wilcox to share this week.
3. Trivia: This week, I have some trivia about a favorite Thanksgiving tradition, the 101-year-old Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.
4. Running: The Southern Arizona Roadrunners are hosting their annual 5K cross-country fun run, the Thanksgiving XC Classic, next Thursday morning at Reid Park.
5. Health & Wellness: Ninety-three-year-old Cecilia Gomez shares her secret to staying healthy: regular workouts at the gym, a mostly healthy diet, and time spent with family and friends.
6. Zoos: The Phoenix Zoo's ZooLights annual holiday light displays opens next week, and here in Tucson, the Reid Park Zoo has a special Thanksgiving weekend event celebrating International Jaguar Day next Saturday.
7. Bindu's Corner: This week, Bindu illuminates how small actions can have profound and lasting impacts.
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I hope you will pick and choose, and enjoy your reads.
Please feel free to share the Flock.
| | Now, to this week's Flock. | | |
As we approach Thanksgiving, I want to express my love and appreciation for my readers, friends, and family.
As a side note, I know many Fock readers will be riding in the El Tour de Tucson tomorrow. Please remember to be careful and courteous.
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2. Poetry: A Thanksgiving Poem
| | The following verse is the third stanza from the poem Thanksgiving by Ella Wheeler Wilcox. It captures the spirit of love and gratitude we express to our friends and family on Thanksgiving. Follow this link to read the whole poem. |
Thanksgiving
by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
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There’s not a day in all the year
But holds some hidden pleasure,
And looking back, joys oft appear
To brim the past’s wide measure.
But blessings are like friends, I hold,
Who love and labor near us.
We ought to raise our notes of praise
While living hearts can hear us.
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3. Trivia: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
| | The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, known for its massive balloons depicting cultural characters, has become as much of a Thanksgiving tradition as football and turkey dinners. Here is some trivia I've collected about the parade. | | Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Trivia | | 1. The first Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, then called the Macy's Christmas Parade, was held on November 27th, 1924, to promote the Christmas sales season and Macy's newly renovated flagship store in Herald Square. The first parade featured Macy's employees dressed in festive costumes, floats, professional bands, and a menagerie of animals from the Central Park Zoo. At the end of the first parade, Santa Claus was crowned the "King of the Kiddies" in a ceremony at Herald Square. | |
2. In 1927, Anthony Frederick Sarg, a puppeteer and theatrical designer who Macy's employed to create their elaborate holiday window displays, was made the parade's artistic director and introduced the first parade balloons depicting exotic animals to replace the animals from the Central Park Zoo. | | 3. Felix the Cat was one of the first balloons based on a popular character added to the parade, although he was filled with air instead of helium and carried through the parade on stilts. | | 4. Between 1928 and 1932, the parade culminated with the release of the helium-filled balloons into the skies above New York, with Macy's offering a reward for their capture and return. The practice ended after a biplane pilot attempted to capture a balloon with her plane, nearly crashing when the deflated balloon wrapped around her wing. | | The balloon ascent at the end of the 1930 Parade. | | |
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5. In 1986, a balloon of Popeye's wife, Olive Oyl, holding her baby Swe'Pea, set the record for the tallest Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon at 102 feet tall. Swe'Pea alone was 30feet tall." | | 6. Snoopy debuted in the 1968 edition of the parade and now holds the record for most appearances with 44 showings in different forms. | | 7. Ronald McDonald: 31 parades, Rocky & Bullwinkle: 26 parades, Pikachu: 25 parades, Sinclair's Dino: 24 parades, Smokey Bear: 24 parades, Kermit the Frog: 22 parades, SpongeBob SquarePants: 21 parades, Mickey Mouse: 20 parades, and Spider-Man: 20 parades fill out the top ten most seen characters. | | Get a Look at the New Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Balloons | |
4. Running: Thanksgiving XC Classic
| | The Southern Arizona Roadrunners are hosting their annual 5K cross-country fun run, the Thanksgiving XC Classic, next Thursday, Thanksgiving morning. This is a fun, family-oriented event with distances appropriate for all ages and fitness levels. What a great way to start your Thanksgiving before a day of feasting and watching football from the couch | | Thanksgiving XC Classic - 5K & 1.5 Mile Fun Run/Walk | | Thursday, 11/27/2025, 7:00am – Reid Park – 900 S. Randolph Way, Tucson, AZ | | The Thanksgiving XC Classic (Tucson's Original Turkey Trot) offers a European style cross-country course with hay bales on grass, dirt, and a little asphalt. The 5K course will be two loops and the 1.5 mile course will be one loop. The course starts near Ramada #10 at the southwest corner of Reid Park, at 22nd St and Country Club Rd. Strollers are welcome although the course is hilly and mostly on grass and dirt. Lanes are provided to bypass the hay bales. Please, no dogs for their safety as well as the safety of all participants. | |
5. Health & Wellness: The Secret to Longevity
| | 93-year-old grandmother Cecilia Gomez has found her own fountain of youth through regular exercise that includes weight training and cardio, along with balance and stability exercises, a vegetable-rich, healthy diet, and maintaining a stimulating social life. | A 93-year-old gym regular says daily workouts keep her feeling 50. She credits exercise, beans, and family for her long life. | From: Business Insider, By: Gabby Landsverk, November 18, 2025 | |
From Monday to Friday, without fail, you'll find 93-year-old Cecilia Gomez in the gym.
"It's like my religion, for me to go there," she said.
The New York-based grandmother has been a staple at the Gold's Gym in Smithtown from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. each weekday for decades.
"I'm in almost perfect condition. I feel like I'm 50," she told Business Insider. "I can play soccer, I play basketball, I do whatever."
Exercise for staying spry
Gomez said she's proud to be the oldest in her workout classes.
Her 60-year-old daughter, Pat Schneider, said Gomez is more than a little competitive — in her youth, she was always picked first for dodgeball and spent much of her childhood free time outdoors.
A surprising superfood
Outside the gym, Gomez said her other key to healthy living is eating well.
Beans are a staple food in her diet, often with rice and vegetables. The humble legume is linked to major longevity benefits, as a major food source in Blue Zones, regions with some of the longest-living people on Earth.
Strong social connections for longevity
Gomez has a busy social calendar that her daughter said is a major factor in her good health and high energy.
"That's actually a key to her longevity, is that she's always active with everyone. The grandkids, great grandkids. She's never alone," Schneider said.
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6. Zoos: Holiday Events at Southern Arizona Zoos
| | Next Wednesday, November 26th, the Phoenix Zoo will open its annual ZooLights with the zoo grounds fully decked out with holiday lights, animal lanterns, and light shows that will run through December and into January. | | ZooLigfhts: Timeless Tradition. Endless Wonder. | | |
Whether you visit ZooLights every year, or you’re starting a brand-new family tradition, the Phoenix Zoo has everything you need to celebrate the season.
Embrace the holiday spirit as more than four million twinkling lights transform the Phoenix Zoo into a winter wonderland with over two miles of glimmering tree-lined trails, dozens of life-like animal lanterns and the tallest floating tree in North America, featuring an all-new light show.
Relax by the firepit while enjoying s’mores and hot cocoa, swing into fun at the Glow Garden, get your photo with Santa and create lasting holiday memories at the Phoenix Zoo.
| | Here in Tucson, The Reid Park Zoo is hosting a special event tocelebrate International Jaguar Day next Saturday, November 29th. The Thanksgiving event includes presentations and activities for the whole family. | |
International Jaguar Day 2025
Saturday, November 29, 2025
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Join Reid Park Zoo and an incredible selection of community partners in celebrating International Jaguar Day! Stroll the Zoo as we share stories of these beloved Sonoran cats and talk about their lives just south of the border.
Festivities include:
- A screening of “The American Southwest” produced by Fin and Fur Films at 1 p.m.
- https://theamericansouthwest.film/
- A jaguar rosette community drawing project
- “Spot the Jaguar” rosette matching game
- Jaguar mask making
- Tables by community partners
- Educational videos
- Enrichment throughout the day for Bella, the Zoo’s Jaguar
| | Thank you, Bindu, for sharing these uplifting words. | | These Flock regulars are always here for you: | | Don't Be Shy: Share Your Stories! | | I'm looking forward to sharing more of your personal stories - oral, written, or otherwise, as we enter our third year. I'd so love to present them to The Flock, hit a mailbox below to share your story. | | Subscriptions & Idea Submissions
Reminder: Your submissions are always welcomed. | | |
Feel free to forward this email to a friend. If this was forwarded to you and you would like to receive your very own Flock Newsletter, you can sign up here. If you have any questions or suggestions for future Flock resources, don't hesitate to contact me.
Your fan and friend,
Beth
| | | The information and materials contained or referenced in this newsletter are for informational purposes only and not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a physician or other qualified medical professional with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment and before beginning a new health care regimen. Do not disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking medical advice or care based on anything contained in this newsletter. | | | | |
