The Park Cities celebrated America’s milestone birthday during a parade filled with patriotism, music, and candy galore.
Flags waved from red, white, and blue adorned floats, necklace-clad children pedaled the parade, and Highland Park High School athletes kept onlookers cool by enthusiastically spraying water guns. The crowd that rang in America’s 250th year spilled off sidewalks and narrowed streets along the parade route.
The birthday bash continued once floats arrived in Centennial Park, where celebrants bounced, climbed, spun, and enjoyed treats such as cupcakes, watermelon, soft serve, and iced coffee.
2026 was also a historic year for the Rotary Club of Park Cities. President Mark Kashar announced that the club had met its goal of providing 3 million meals in partnership with the North Texas Food Bank. He said that the club had raised that goal to 5 million meals.
Speakers in Centennial Park both reflected on the country’s values and remembered with compassion the lives lost in last year’s devastating Hill Country floods. The flood’s victims included nine young girls from the area: Lila Bonner, Hadley Hanna, Blair Harber, Brooke Harber, Janie Hunt, Hanna Lawrence, Rebecca Lawrence, Wynne Naylor, and Eloise Peck.
University Park Mayor Randy Biddle said that city council members had ridden in the parade in honor of the young girls and that their hearts went out to those affected by the flooding. He added that the memory of the lives lost is a reminder of the bond of community and its power to come together in times of heartbreak and grief.
Those who lost their lives during the flooding were also remembered in a ceremonial flyover in the skies above Highland Park by U.S. Air Force fighter jets the evening of July Fourth.
