Parade To Honor Flood Victims, Nation’s 250th Anniversary

The Rotary Club of Park Cities is in its 23rd year of hosting the Fourth of July parade and associated festivities, which kick off at 9 a.m. on Saturday, July 4. The parade runs from Highland Park Town Hall on Drexel Drive to Centennial Park in University Park. 

There will be a moment of silence in the gazebo at Centennial Park to honor the lives of the six Park Cities girls who died in last summer’s devastating Texas Hill Country floods. Lila Bonner, 9, Hadley Hanna, 8, Janie Hunt, 9, Hanna and Rebecca Lawrence, both 8, and Eloise Peck, 8, were about to start third grade at Highland Park ISD elementary schools. 

The parade will also celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary through its theme — America 250 — and philanthropic efforts. The Rotary Club of Park Cities has used funds raised during the parade to provide 2.3 million meals to needy North Texans. The club hopes to raise sufficient funds to reach 3 million meals by 2028.

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Rachel Snyder

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Rachel Snyder, managing editor at People Newspapers, first joined the staff in 2019. She's covered everything from Dallas and University Park municipal government to business. Rachel began her journalism career at the daily newspaper The Express Star in Chickasha, Okla. She went on to work for the daily Duncan Banner in Duncan, Okla. the weekly Sand Springs Leader, and WFAA-TV in Dallas. She’s a fan of puns and community journalism, not necessarily in that order.