The Chilliwack Rotary Christmas Parade will be making the holidays bright for people in more than one way this weekend.
In addition to bringing the annual festive parade to people for the first time since 2019, organizers are asking folks to bring non-perishable food items to donate.
They spoke with folks at the Salvation Army who stressed how high the need is this year.
“The need for food is greater than ever before,” said parade co-ordinator Gail Smit.
There will be about a dozen bins along the parade route where people will be able to drop off non-perishable food items on Saturday, Dec. 3. There will also be a few bins set up at the marshalling area, located at Chilliwack Secondary School.
READ MORE: Rotary Christmas Parade set to roll through downtown Chilliwack for 1st time since 2019
“We hope the Rotary parade will kick off the holiday spirit by partnering with the Chilliwack community to help achieve our goal of collecting 1,000 non-perishable items for the local food bank,” Smit said. “It’s a big goal, but if the citizens of Chilliwack are aware we are doing this, we have faith it will happen.”
People walking in the parade will not be collecting items as they make their way along the route, she added.
As of Wednesday (Nov. 30) the weather was expected to be nice on the day of the event. Environment Canada forecasted it would be a mix of sun and cloud and a temperature of 0 degrees.
Also at Chilliwack Secondary School, there will be three food trucks. The Fuzzy Pickle, Something Cheezy and Barking Irons food trucks will be on site starting at 1 p.m. and will stay until about 6 p.m.
The Chilliwack Rotary Christmas Parade is presented by Mountainview Harley-Davidson and sponsored by the City of Chilliwack. It takes place Saturday, Dec. 3 and leaves the marshalling area at CSS at 5:30 p.m. It heads west on Yale Road to Five Corners and then continues onto Wellington Avenue. The parade then goes north on College Street, takes a little jog onto Young Road before heading east on Reece Avenue to go back to CSS.
READ MORE: New route announced for Rotary Christmas Parade in Chilliwack
For more info and for updates, go to chilliwackchristmasparade.ca.
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