Saturday, December 5, 2026 @12pm
|Downtown Bend, Oregon
Let Us Be Light
Some years, the lights of the season mean more than usual. This is one of them.
“Let Us Be Light” holds both: honoring the lives we lost, and inviting all of us into what we do next. Light is something you do, not something you hang: the meal dropped off, the walk shoveled, the quiet company, the neighbor who simply shows up. This December, we’re asking all of Bend to be that light, together.
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The Gathering: A Float to Lead Us
This year’s parade will be led by a special float honoring the four lives lost at Silver Rail Elementary this fall.
At its heart will be four figures, lifted by a gathering of wings rising up around them. The four are the lights we carry forward. The wings lifting them up are all of us.
It won’t be a traditional parade float. It will be a work of art, created here in Bend by local artists, fabricators and craftspeople who are coming together now to give this moment shape. Over the coming weeks, every piece of it will be made by Bend hands, as an expression of what this community can do when we show up for each other.
In honor of
Silver Rail Elementary
How to Be Light on Parade Day
Be still as it passes.
Look beside you.
Keep it going.
Bend has always been a town that shows up for each other. This float is our way of saying the families aren’t walking alone. Light doesn’t erase the dark. It just refuses to leave anyone alone in it.
Scott Douglass, founder of Cascade Relays