(Clearwisdom.net) On July 3, 2004, Falun Gong practitioners from St. Louis participated for the first time in the Independence Day Parade as part of Webster Grove Community Days celebrations held over the Fourth of July holidays. After winning a prize at the "Ballwin Day" parade held in Ballwin, Missouri last week, practitioners kept working hard to prepare for this parade. They came here to display to more people the beauty of Falun Dafa.

The float was decorated with many pink lotus flowers. With the blue carpet and valance cloth as the background, the lotus flowers looked very bright and pretty. Practitioners on the float dressed in yellow exercise suits.

Prior to the parade, the sky was dark and it looked as if it would rain. Practitioners were not moved; instead, they sent forth righteous thoughts to clear away the dark and dense haze. As soon as our procession set off, the clouds disappeared and the sun shone everywhere. Practitioners smiled and felt happy for the people here.

Practitioners holding two huge banners with the words, "Falun Dafa" and "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance" led the procession. Two female practitioners joyfully performed the lively fan dance while proceeding. Practitioners on the float continuously demonstrated the five Falun Gong exercises. The compassionate and peaceful music "Pu Du" (Universal Salvation) accompanied our procession and echoed in the air through the street. Both sides of the more than 2-mile-long street were crowded with spectators. When our float passed through, warm applause and heartfelt praise could be constantly heard. "Beautiful!" "I love it!" "Such a pretty float!" "I love the music!" "Excellent! Falun Gong!" "Thank you for coming here!" From people's sincere looks, we saw the blessing of Falun Dafa to people. Practitioners who were distributing truth-clarifying materials were busy on both sides of the street, and the 2000 copies of literature fell short of the demand.